LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Shelf :JB°i 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



MEDIUM THEOLOGY.' 



LECTURES 



OF 



REV. REUBEN BURROW, D.D., 

Pofessok of Theology in Bethel College from 1851 to I860. 



WITH 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH AND SHORT ACCOUNT f RINERAI 



ARRANGED AND PREPARED BY HIS SON, 

REV. A^fc. BURROW. 



'. 



" Truth not unfrequently forms the middle point 'between two 
extremes." — Paschal. — 



NASHVILLE, TENN.: 

Printed at the Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing Homis* 

1881. 



Tt 



31 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by 

A. G. Burrow, 
Ln the Oiiice of the Librarian of Congivss, Washington, D. C. 



4- 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE SUBSCKIBEBS TO THIS BOOK, 

WHICH OWES ITS PUBLICATION IN LAKGE MEASURE TO THEM, AND TC WB.OM 

THE PROPRIETOR ACKNOWLEDGES A DEBT OF PROFOUND GRATITUDE, 

TOGETHER WITH ALL THE OLD FRIENDS OF THE AUTHOR, 

AND TO ALL WHO SHALL PERUSE ITS PAGES IN 

PRESENT OR FUTURE TIME, 

I (DEDICATE THIS VOLUME, 

WITH A PRAYER FOR THE DIVINE BLESSING TO ATTEND BOTH TH.KM AND IT. 

A, G. B. 



PREFATORY, 



The following Lectures and Articles are the Author's own words, show- 
ing his style of w r riting, his thoughts and reasoning. The manuscripts are 
so marked. Most of the other Lectures and Articles are taken from the 
Theological Medium. The two on Baptism and the Holy Communion will 
be recognized by the readers of the Author's book on Baptism, as taken 
from that book. The former of these only has been abridged, but this has 
been done by way of selections and omissions, so as to preserve the 
Author's own words. The short article on Infant Salvation as Related to 
Justification and Sanctification is taken from the Banner of Peace. 



CONTENTS. 



Autobiographical Sketch 9 

A ccount of Funeral 19 



SECTION I. 



Lecture 1. — Natural Religion Manuscript 22 

2.— Holy Spirit Manuscript 35 

3.— God Creator Manuscript 49 

4. — Creation Manuscript 58 



SECTION II. 

5.— The Moral Law Manuscript 67 

6. -Fall and Depravity of Man Manuscript 77 

7. — Atonement — In Two Parts Theological Medium. 93 

SECTION in. 

8. — Prayer Manuscript 125 

9. — Repentance Manuscript 137 

10.— Faith in Christ Manuscript 158 

11. — Justification Theological Medium. 180 

12. — Regeneration Manuscript 204 

13.— Adoption Manuscript 228 

SECTION IV. 

14.— Good Works Manuscript 237 

15. — Sanctification Theological Medium. 245 

16.— Perseverance Manuscript 287 

section v. 

17. — Responsibility of Man Manuscript 323 

18.— Freedom of the Will Manuscript 342 

19.— Decrees of God Manuscript 361 

SECTION VI. 

20.— Future Life Manuscript 371 

21.— Resurrection Manuscript 382 

22. — Final Judgment Manuscript 395 

SECTION VII. 

23.— The Trinity Theological Medium. 407 

24.— Sonship of Christ Manuscript 439 

SECTION VIII. 

25.— Christian Baptism Book on Baptism... 451 

26. — Baptism of the Holy Ghost Book on Baptism... 495 



(vty 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

Lecture 27. — Christian Communion Book on Baptism .. . 514 

SECTION IX. 

28. — Sabbath Manuscript.. 530 

29.— Church Government. ..Manuscript. ........... 538 

30.— Missions Manuscript........... 564 

31. — Divine Providence. Manuscript. ........... 575 

ARTICLES. 

A rticlb 1 . — Call to the Ministry Theological Medium. 596 

2. — Cumberland Presbyterianism not Cal- 
vinism nor Arminianism Theological Medium,. 609 

3. — Infant Sanctification in Relation to 

Justification ..Banner of Peace. . . . .. 620 

SUPPLEMENTAL. 

Last Preaching and Second Advent ' 622 



AUTO-BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF REV. R. BURROW, 
WRITTEN JUST BEFORE HIS DEATH. 



I have consented to give these sketches by the request of 
some of my friends, who felt a wish to know something of my 
life and conflicts. I can well and truly say, in the language 
of one of old times, that few and evil have been the days of 
my pilgrimage. 

I was born June 26, 1798, in Guilford county, North Carolina. 
My parents were poor, but industrious and of good character- 
They moved to Middle Tennessee, and settled in Bedford 
count}' in 1806 or 1807. The country was new, the advantages 
were few, and my opportunities of getting an education were 
very much embarrassed. We had preaching occasionally, but 
the morals of the community were not good. My early life 
was spent in sin and folly until I was about twenty-one or twenty- 
two years old. I had often been deeply concerned about my 
eternal welfare, and often made solemn vows, but as often 
broke them, until the year 1821. In the spring of 1821 1 came 
to the Western District of Tennessee with the intention of 
making it my home, and pitched my tent on» Clear creek, 
Carroll county, where I professed religion. When I left my 
father's house, in Bedford county, for the West, I left under a 
solemn vow to change my life and serve God the balance of 
my days. This vow I never broke; and, although I had no 
opportunity of attending church, or of any religious conver- 
sation with any one, I found peace in the forest, and there 
commenced my new life. In the summer of the same year I 
went back to Bedford county, and there joined the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church by the agency of Father King. 

That fall I was received under the care of Elk Presbytery, 
which met at Mars Hill, near Cornersville. The next spring 
2 (9) 



10 AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF DR. BURROW. 

I was sent to the State of Missouri in company with Robert 
D. King. We were sent there to preach as circuit-riders, while 
the Rev. Finis Ewing was writing his course of lectures. I was 
placed on a circuit with John Morrow. The circuit was in 
Western Missouri, including the country where Lexington and 
Independence have since risen up. While on my way to the 
circuit from near Boonville, I fell into a state of gloom and 
despondency, and for about four days and nights I had no ray 
of light nor hope of heaven. I even doubted the reality of all 
things, and was for a time a miserable infidel ; yet I prayed all 
the time and believed nothing. About the fourth day, after 
brother Morrow had preached rather a duli sermon, I was 
invited to conclude the services ; and while trying to talk, ere 
I was aware of ray own condition, God had raised me higher 
and filled my soul fuller of heaven than ever I had realized 
before. The congregation was stirred to its very depths by the 
Almighty; they were all moved, and at a call given, they all 
covenanted to seek God's mercy, and in the course of about 
two weeks the most of them made profession of religion. 
This was not only a bright day to me, but the days and nights 
were all bright to me for twelve months. Indeed, this was an 
ordeal which has done me good from that day to this time. 

Captain William Jack, who became awakened on this 
occasion and covenanted with the others to seek life, did not 
find peace until about two weeks after this time of awakening. 
He came to a camp-meeting with his family, and after a 
struggle for life through the meeting up to Monday morning, 
he found peace — God blessed him. The people collected from 
the camps, and the excitement became so great that no con- 
gregation could be convened until night. This was a day of 
the Lord's power. During that year we reported over three 
hundred conversions from that circuit. The people were kind 
to us and gave us some clothing, such as they could make, 
and I received in money eight dollars for the year, and felt 
very well contented and thankful for that. 

It was some time the same year I went to a camp-meeting 
near Boonville, and at the close of the meeting, Tuesday 
morning, my norse, through the neglect of some brethren, got 
out of the stable and ran away. After hunting him for two 



AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF DR. BURROW. 11 

or three days with no success, I shouldered my saddle-bags 
and set out for my circuit afoot. The distance was about 
eighty miles ; the weather being warm, and the whole way 
being through extended prairies, my feet became very sore 
from travel. The second day, about 3 o'clock p. m., I entered 
the last stretch of my journey; it was a prairie of more than 
twenty miles. Here I toiled in weariness and pain until 
midnight before I reached a house on the other side where I 
could quench my thirst and rest my weary limbs. Here I 
was met by Captain Jack with a horse for me to ride on the 
circuit, and he went in pursuit of my horse, which he brought 
back in eight or ten days. Peace be to his memory, for he is 
at home with the Lord ! 

About this time it was contemplated by the McGee Pres- 
bytery to hold an intermediate session in Arkausas, and in 
the spring of 1823 the arrangement was made. The Rev. 
John Carnahan was the only minister we had in that country, 
and it being necessary to make out a quorum by the addition 
of two others from Missouri, the Rev. William Long, from 
Kentucky, who was at that time a missionary in Missouri, was 
sent to assist in holding that Presbytery ; and to make out a 
third member, the McGee Presbytery decided to ordain Robert 
D. King, who was a licentiate from the Elk Presbytery. 
Consequently, King was ordained, and I was licensed by the 
McGee Presbytery in the spring of 1823, and I went with Long 
and King to Arkansas. We met Carnahan at the house of a 
brother Craig, near Batesville, on White river, and organized 
the intermediate Presbytery, at which there were five young 
men received under its care. Among them I remember the 
names of Black and Buchanan, who afterward became very 
useful and quite distinguished ministers of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church in that country. We held a camp- 
meeting at that place the same spring, and another in the 
latter part of the summer, which resulted in great good. 
After the business of Presbytery was closed Long returned 
to Missouri, where he remained for a time; Carnahan and 
King went to Arkansas river, and I remained in that section 
of country and formed a circuit, including the country about 
Batesville, where I continued to labor for several months, and 



12 AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF DR. BURROW. 

then went to join Carnahan and King. This was the first 
circuit formed by our people in that State, and such was the 
commencement of our Church there. 

When I reached Arkansas river, I found that Carnahan 
and King had gone up the river as far as Fort Smith. I 
continued my pursuit, with the aid of some young men for 
guides, until I fell in with them near Fort Smith. Here we 
held a camp-meeting, which was attended with great good — 
many persons made profession of religion. From this place 
we went down the river about a day's ride to the next 
appointment, where we held a meeting of some three days' 
continuance, which was attended with divine favor. Here I 
was attacked with chills and fever, and became so ill that I 
was not able to travel on horseback, and the brethren being 
unwilling to leave me, bought a canoe to convey me down 
the river to the next appointment, which by the river was 
over one hundred miles. Carnahan and some others took the 
horses, and King and two young men with him navigated 
the stream. I suffered on this voyage, the weather being 
very hot, and having to sit and lie in the canoe under the 
heat of a hot sun. But we made a safe landing at Crystal 
Hill, about twenty miles above Little Rock. Here I obtained 
some relief by the use of suitable means, and was soon able 
to labor again. Here we held a camp-meeting, at the close 
of which King had an attack of fever, and I waited on him 
eight or ten days, when he began to recover, and I left him 
and went with Carnahan to a camp-meeting on "White river, 
the same place where we held one in the spring. This was 
also attended with great favor. At the close of this meeting 
I set out for Missouri, as the time for the fall meeting of 
McGee Presbytery was drawing near. The distance to the 
nearest part of the State was one hundred and fifty miles, 
through a dreary country. My horse was taken sick the first 
day, and after walking and driving him over one hundred 
miles he died. I then got a friend to aid me the remainder 
of the way to the neighborhood of St. Michael, where I met 
with brother Long at a camp-meeting. This was in the old 
French mining country. At the close of this truly interest- 
ing meeting, brother Long packed his baggage and mine on 



AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF DR. BURROW. 13 

his horse and we both walked. In this manner we went on 
our way to upper Missouri, where the McGee Presbytery was 
to convene, in the neighborhood of Boonville. I was taken 
sick the evening of the first day, and it became necessary for 
Long to leave me, as there was an appointment for a camp- 
meeting on the way to Presbytery, which he was obliged to 
attend. I remained several days after brother Long left me 
before I was able to travel, and even before I was clear of 
fever, I started on a borrowed horse to go the balance of the 
way to Presbytery, which was yet over one hundred and fifty 
miles. My fever returned, and I became very sick and feeble, 
yet I imprudently continued my journey until I reached 
Presbytery, which was on the first day of the meeting. Here 
I remained until I thought myself able to travel, when I 
bought a cheap horse with what money I had brought with 
me from Tennessee, and what had been given me in my tours, 
and King and I started for Tennessee, where we arrived in 
due time. Having had to buy a horse, I was necessitated to 
borrow money to pay my way home, which I obtained from 
brother King. These were my first labors in the cause of the 
Lord. 

After my return from Missouri to Tennessee, I was 
ordained by the Elk Presbytery, and directed to travel and 
preach as a circuit-preacher for one year. My bounds were 
the counties of Maury, Bedford, Giles, and Lincoln. In those 
days camp-meetings were very common, and a vast number 
of people throughout the land professed religion. There was 
in the midst of the excitement an exercise called the jerks. 
It was not confined to persons claiming to be religious, but 
irreligious people were as often the subjects of it as any 
others; consequently, it was not taken to be an evidence of 
true piety in any case by considerate persons ; it was mani- 
festly a very strange and mysterious exercise. When my 
time closed on this circuit, I was permitted to travel more 
extensively, without being restricted to any designated bounds 
or field of labor. This continued till the year 1826, as well as 
I now remember. About this time our highest Church judi- 
cature devised the plan of a manual-labor college, which was 
located at Princeton, Ky., and a number of agents were 



14 AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF DR. BURROW. 

appointed and sent to collect means for this purpose — the 
Rev. Albert G. Gibson and I were directed to the Carolinas. 
Accordingly we started and made our way through East 
Tennessee and West Virginia into North Carolina. 

At this time, our ministers actively engaged in the ministry 
in this part of Tennessee were George Donnell, Samuel Aston, 
Abner Lansden, Wm. Smith, and two of the brothers Tate. 
In concert with these brethren we labored in East Tennessee, 
and apparently with good success; but in collecting means 
for the college, we had very little success. East of the 
mountains we could do but very little for it, as we had no 
organized churches there; consequently, we ceased our efforts 
for the college, and set our minds wholly on preaching the 
gospel. Our course was eastward through North Carolina to 
the sea-coast, and thence into South Carolina by the way of 
Newbern, Wilmington, and Fayetteville. After spending 
some time in South Carolina, we went through North Car- 
olina into Virginia, where we spent some time, and then 
returned to North Carolina again. Having been out over ten 
months, we set out for the West. On our way East, we had 
left an appointment for a two days' meeting at Abingdon, 
Va., and an appointment for a camp-meeting near Greeneville, 
East Tennessee, to be attended to on our return home. On 
reaching Abingdon, we met with brother Aston. The 
services commenced Saturday and continued till Sabbath 
evening; the attendance was good and the excitement very 
great. 

I will mention one circumstance which occurred at this 
time. There was a note placed in the Bible directed to us, 
which we found at the evening service. The writer requested 
us to pray for him, and stated that he would make himself 
known in due time. After service closed this young man 
met us near the pulpit, and informed us that he wrote the 
note above named, and said his name was Samuel Sparks. 
We gave him some words of counsel and went to our lodg- 
ings. We had just seated ourselves, however, when we 
heard a rap at the door, and an elderly man entered and 
requested us to go to his house. When we reached the 
house, we found it filled with penitent sinners, pleading with 



AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF DR. BURROW. 15 

God for mercy, and our young man, Sparks, was one of the 
number. We continued with them until a late hour in the 
night, and then left them with a promise to meet them early 
next morning. Next morning we met them, and after some 
time spent in prayer and exhortation, we left for the purpose 
of going to our camp-meeting near Greeneville, seventy-five 
miles distant. Early in the meeting the young man Sparks 
and another young man came to the meeting; they had come 
afoot. They both professed religion, went back to Abingdon, 
and promoted the revival in that place with good success, 
and many professed faith in Christ. Our meeting in Greene 
county was surely attended with the blessing of the Lord, 
and many found peace. 

From this we made our way through East Tennessee 
homeward, attending camp and sacramental meetings on 
our way. 

When the old Synod met we made our report, paid over 
what money we had collected for the college, received some 
reprimands because the sum was so small, but received no 
money to pay expenses — no, none; and we received but very 
little at the meetings which we attended. 

After a short stay in the West, I went back through East 
Tennessee to North Carolina and Virginia. As I cannot give 
anything like a minute detail of events, I will briefly say that 
this visit to that old country was attended with great and 
good results, so far as I could see and know. I, however, 
never made any effort to organize congregations east of the 
mountains, though often solicited to do so. 

On my way home from this tour, I called to see my young 
brother Sparks, of Abingdon, and found him ready to come 
westward with me; but having no horse, we put our baggage 
on my horse until we reached East Tennessee, where we 
got some assistance from one meeting to another until we 
reached West Tennessee, where he joined Presbytery, and 
was educated by the Winchester church. He w T as in due 
time licensed and ordained, and became a man of fine 
promise; and some time after our return from Pennsylvania 
he went to that country, and finally joined the Presbyterian 
Church — under what circumstances I will not say. 



16 AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF DR. BURROW. 

I continued to travel as a kind of missionary until the 
winter of 1828, when I was married to Elizabeth Bell, near 
Salem, Franklin county, Tennessee. After this change in 
life, I was more local for about two years, only preaching on 
Sabbaths, except on camp-meeting occasions. 

In the fall of 1829 we moved to West Tennessee, then 
known as the Western District, and settled near Denmark, 
Madison county. 

Between this time and 1831 there was a correspondence 
commenced and carried on for some time, between some 
Presbyterians of Western Pennsylvania and Dr. Cossitt of 
our Church, at that time President of Princeton College. 
They requested that some of our ministers should be sent to 
that country to preach our doctrines, and, if thought proper, 
to organize churches there. Accordingly, our General 
Assembly, which had in the meantime been organized, sent 
five ministers to spend some time in that country. Rev. 
Messrs. Alexander Chapman, Alfred Bryan, John Morgan, 
Robert Donnell, and myself were sent in the spring of 1831. 
A. Chapman, A. Bryan, and J. Morgan went on through Ken- 
tucky and Ohio, and I fell in with brother Donnell in 
Northern Alabama, and we went through East Tennessee, 
North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. Our journey was 
not hurried, as we preached often on the way. In North 
Carolina we spent some time, in Guilford and Rockingham 
Counties mainly; and now, while I pen these lines, I feel 
constrained to say the power and goodness of the Lord were 
graciously manifested in the awakening and conversion of 
many souls. This was my third visit to that country, and I 
have made one more. 

When we started for Pennsylvania, some friends followed 
us with an urgent request to attend a camp-meeting in 
Caswell, which we consented to do, and then departed for 
Pennsylvania, where we arrived the first week in September, 
this being the_time agreed on for holding a camp- meeting 
when we were all together. The meeting was in progress 
when brother Donnell and I arrived on Saturday. The 
congregation was large, and a great many families tented on 
the ground ; the excitement was very general, and somewhere 



AUTO-BIOGKAPHY OF DR. BURROW. 17 

near three hundred professed religion at this meeting. The 
second camp-meeting was attended with similar results ; as 
indeed were all the services we attended in that country. Here 
we organized churches and have a large membership at this- 
day. Toward the latter part of October, brothers Chapman, 
Donnell, and myself set out for home, leaving brothers 
Morgan and Bryan there. These are all now dead. 

Brother Donnell and I attended the Middle Tennessee 
Synod on our way home, which met in Lebanon. There 
was during the session a very interesting revival gotten up, 
which resulted well and many of the old citizens of that 
place professed religion, and joined our Church. This was 
the commencement of our Church in that place, with the 
exception of a few members previously collected. After 
Synod, brother Donnell and I parted, each for his home, 
after a long tour. In those days ministers in the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian Church were not sustained by Church 
patronage, and the contributions from the people were very 
lean. 

Somewhere about the year 1835 Father King made a 
tour, by the request of the General Assembly, to visit the 
churches generally; and it was thought best that some 
ministerial aid should be sent to Missouri to minister in his 
absence; consequently, W. H. Bigham and myself were 
sent out there by the Assembly. We continued our labors 
there until fall. We made the best use of our time and 
opportunities we could; and now I feel grateful to God for 
his manifold mercies on this occasion. 

After our return home — in what year I do not remember, 
as I never intended to give any written statement of these 
matters and kept no diary or journal, and have consented 
only at this time to give this brief account by special 
request — the Board of Missions requested me to visit North 
Carolina to ascertain the prospects for organizing churches 
and of promoting the cause of Christ in that old State. I 
made the tour and reported to the Board at Lebanon, and 
they gave me one hundred dollars, which was the first money 
I had ever received from the Church for any of my tours 
and labors. 






18 r. burrow's funeral. 

My report from North Carolina was that we had let the 
time pass by; and, moreover, that there were more inviting 
fields for us in the new countries of the West, where 
sectarian prejudice, though it may exist, is not organized as 
it is in older sections. 

It only remains for me to narrate a few facts in relation to 
my connection with Bethel College as Professor of Theology. 
After the General Assembly gave up and despaired of 
success with the College at Princeton, Kentucky, they 
established a college at Lebanon, Tennessee, and created a 
Theological Department there, and the whole was placed 
under the patronage of the General Assembly. Bethel 
College was gotten up by West Tennessee Synod, and two 
Synods of Mississippi agreed to give their patronage to it. 
I was requested and appointed to take charge of the 
Theological Department, which I consented to, and delivered 
lectures to the students of divinity until the war. 

I have endeavored to do all I could for the cause of Christ 
through the whole of my ministerial life ; and although I have 
done but little, I do not know that I could make much 
improvement if I had the time to go over again, and do not 
see any important changes I would make. 



dr. burrow's funeral. 19 



From the Banner of Peace. 

DR. BURROW'S FUNERAL SERVICE. 



Last Thursday morning, May 14, 1868, the sad tidings 
reached me at this place (Humboldt, Tenn.,) that the vener- 
able man of God, whose name is at the head of this article, 
was dead; that his body would, in a few minutes, be at the 
depot on its way to McLemoresville, Tenn., for interment. 
Though we had been expecting, for several weeks, to hear of 
his death, yet language could not express the feelings of my 
heart on the reception of such unwelcome news. I met the 
body on its arrival, and accompanied it, in connection with 
four of the children of the deceased — Capt. John Burrow, 
Rev. A. G. Burrow, and the two youngest daughters. We 
arrived in a few hours at the point of destination, but, owing 
to the absence of some of the leading citizens to whom the 
dispatch had been sent, requesting preparations to be made 
for interment by the arrival of the corpse, the grave had not 
been dug, and, hence the funeral and burial-services were de- 
ferred till next morning, 10 o'clock, when a goodly number of 
brethren, friends and neighbors of Father Burrow, assembled 
in the Cumberland Presbyterian church. The corpse was 
placed in front of that pulpit where it had so often stood as a 
mouth-piece for God. The funeral-services were conducted 
by Rev. A. E. Cooper, in accordance with the request of the 
deceased. These two old brethren had lived for several years 
at McLemoresville in the most iutimate and fraternal rela- 
tions. The sermon w T as preached from 2 Timothy iv. 6, 7, 8. 
There was an impressive allusion made to the giant intellect 
of Dr. Burrow, its vast stores of useful information, his 
unblemished character, his ardent piety, and extraordinary 
skillfulness in the word of righteousness ; the masterly and 
successful manner in which he always met and opposed error, 
coming from any quarter, taking off its false mask and dis- 



20 dr. burrow's funeral. 

covering its fallacy to the comprehension of the simplest 
mind; to the many and wearisome preaching tours he had 
taken, at one time and another, in the States of North Caro- 
lina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, 
andfhis own adopted State, breaking the bread of life unto 
thousands as he went. He was in the ministry about fort} 7 
years, with a success that has no parallel in his own or any 
other Church in his day. Dr. Burrow was a man of the sim- 
plest and most unostentatious habits; in his spirit, gentle and 
tender. The writer enjoyed the extraordinary privilege of 
being associated with this great and good man in 1866 in 
quite a number of protracted meetings in various counties of 
West Tennessee, that were attended with wonderful results in 
building up the Church and in the conversion of sinners. 
He was the most able doctrinal preacher I ever heard. I can 
truly say that I have never seen or read of any minister who 
had a higher regard for Christ, or a greater solicitude for the 
prosperity of his cause. When with him, I was always im- 
pressed that I was in the presence of one filled with the Spirit 
of Christ; hence, was always encouraged and strengthened. 
After the funeral-services were over, which were, very inter- 
esting and impressive, the coffin was opened and we looked 
for the last time upon that face upon which we had so often 
seen the cheerful smile, but now cold and unmoved in death. 
We then followed the remains to the grave, where they were 
deposited by the side of his wife and two sons. While gaz- 
ing upon this solemn scene, I thought of the blessedness he 
must be realizing, having been already recognized by his wife 
and three sons in heaven, as well as the multiplied thousands 
he had been instrumental in saving that were there also. For 
a time my soul was absorbed in deep thought about the prec- 
ious reward of a faithful servant of God. I felt that I wanted 
to start with new zeal, increased vigor, and fresh courage in 
my Master's work and labor as I had never done before. To 
the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church I would 
say, Let us imitate this illustrious example and the Church will 
have a bright future, while her faithful ministers shall have a 
precious reward. We will go up to enjoy the associations of 
"Old Uncle Eeuben," with all the happy millions who have 



dr. burrow's funeral. 21 

washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb, and sing the song of sorrows ended forever, where we 
shall forever contemplate the profound depths, the infinite 
heights, the constantly unfolding glories of the system of 
human redemption. J. W. Morrow. 

Dr. Burrow was one of the founders of the Church, as he 
has always been one of its lights. Strong in physique and 
mind, deep in voice, bright in the twinkle of his keen eye, 
warm in the gra3p of his great band, be was a man to con- 
quer and to hold ! Without pretensions to graceful oratory, 
he was full of the truth, and it made him free indeed ! He 
had studied it long — by the fire-light in early days ; by the 
roadside as he traveled from meeting to meeting; in his offi- 
cial chair of Theology; and in the judicatories of his Church. 
His mind was quick, analytical, and clear. His conception of 
the Cross and the remedial scheme for man was grand and 
wide; and when his soul and mind were warmed and fully 
expanded with the great theme, conviction came to sinners, 
high and low, and tears ran down the faces of strong men ; 
the feeblest women became mighty in faith, and the hope of 
the Christian swayed every breast. With the drill of the 
gospel and the hammer of truth he went out into this world's 
great quarry ; he tore from their foundations in sin the old 
sinners and great sinners — the bowlders of sin — he broke 
them, he polished them, and placed them in the walls of 
Zion. For fifty years he has been building on this wall. 
Well done, faithful old man of God! From labor to 
refreshment you go ! And the sweet memories of thousands 
upon thousands of hearts in the Church you loved and served 
so well will enshrine your name. w. e. w. 






SECTION I. 



LECTURE I.— NATURAL RELIGION. 

Natural religion is that knowledge which we have of God 
derived from the works of creation, together with our 
obligations to him and our fellow-creatures. That we can 
have some knowledge of God from his works, can only be 
called in question by such as deny the truth of his word; for 
it is very manifest that the heathen — the Gentiles — had some 
knowledge of him, unaided by revelation. And this 
knowledge of him does not appear to have been confined to 
a part, but extended to all. " Because that which may be 
known of God, is manifest in them ; for God hath shewed it 
unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of 
the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that 
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they 
are without excuse." — Rom. i, 19, 20. Paul says they had 
this knowledge of God from the creation of the world — from 
the beginning; " for God hath shewed it unto them." The 
knowledge which they had of God extended to invisible 
things of him — to his perfections, even to his eternal power 
and Godhead. And he expressly tells us that God gave them 
this knowledge that they might be left without excuse in the 
day of judgment. This knowledge of God was given to all 
who lived before the time when Paul wrote, for they all lived 
under a like dispensation, except the Jews. It is moreover 
true, that all who now live beyond the circulation of the 
Bible and a preached gospel, are under the very same 
dispensation now that those heathen were before a written 
revelation was given. Again it is said: "For when the 
Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things 
(22) 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 23 

contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law 
unto themselves; which shew the works of the law written 
in their hearts; their conscience also bearing witness, and 
their thoughts the mean while, accusing, or else excusing one 
another." — Rom. n, 14, 15. 

The Gentiles are not only spoken of as having a knowledge 
of God, but that knowledge is given them by him — it is 
written in their hearts, and they have a consciousness of 
their obligations to him, and either feel clear or guilty before 
him. My purpose is rather to inquire into the utility of 
natural religion, than to prove its existence from the works 
of nature; for while the doctors of divinity have elaborated 
learnedly concerning it, they have said little or nothing as to 
whether it is of any real benefit to mankind ; for if it be of 
no benefit to the souls of men, it must be more a matter of 
speculation than otherwise, and more worthy the attention 
of naturalists than theologians. That there is such a thing 
as natural religion, has been conceded by all, and warmly 
defended by many of the most renowned divines of the world, 
and while it is admitted to be the foundation of revealed 
religion, little- or nothing has been said as to its utility and 
design. 

I shall take the position that it differs in "no essential 
respect from revealed religion, but is in all its essential 
elements the same. Natural religiou was gracious in its 
design and organization, and manifestly so in its development 
to mankind, " for God hath shewed it unto them that they 
might be without excuse." The plan of salvation is but one, 
God is its author; he designed it for man, and evidently for 
his good, and if it is of God's own planning, Christ and his 
blood and the influence of the Holy Spirit must be its vital 
elements as truly as they are of revealed religion. This 
must be true, if revealed religion is founded upon natural 
religion, as theologians have admitted. No sound divine 
will contend that a religion is of any value to the world, 
which leaves mankind in a helpless condition; and such was 
evidently the condition of the world before a revelation was 
given, and also where there is none now, if natural religion 
did not contain all the essential elements of the present plan 



24 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of salvation by grace. Whether the religion be natural or 
revealed, we know of no possible salvation except by free 
grace, flowing through Christ, the promised seed. Now, if 
it is true that, there is no other name given under heaven 
through which mankind can be saved, it must be true that 
none ever were or ever will be saved under the dispensation 
of natural religion, unless it is the same with revealed religion, 
and embodies all the saving and essential grace thereof, and 
especially the influence of the Holy Spirit. The doctors of 
divinity have manifested great timidity in approaching this 
subject, unwilling, it appears, to admit a possible salvation on 
the one hand, or to deny it on the other. Some of them, 
however, have admitted enough for my purpose ; they have 
admitted that God had elect ones under the dispensation of 
natural religion, and that they were saved by grace,, and at 
the same time have concluded that God has left us in the dark 
as to how they were saved. I will here submit an extract 
from the lectures of George Hill, D.D., to his class, pages 
614-15. 

" With regard to those in ancient times who knew nothing 
of the Jewish law, and those in modern times to whom the 
gospel has not yet been published, we feel a greater difficulty, 
at least we do not find ourselves so far enabled by Scripture 
to explain in what manner they can be saved. For although 
it is impossible that they could attain by any ordinary means 
that knowledge which is essential to faith in Christ, yet it is 
contrary to what we account the fundamental principles of 
Christianity, to believe that their actions, however useful to 
society, and however highly esteemed by men, possessed such 
a degree of perfection as to entitle them to acceptance with 
God. But it does not necessarily follow from the principles 
which we hold, that all such persons are finally condemned, 
because we can conceive that God may in some extraordinary 
manner convey to the souls of those who are to be saved 
that knowledge which he did not afford them the outward 
means of acquiring; and we are disposed to consider Job as 
an instance of this kind presented to us in Scripture ; a man 
who appears to have had no acquaintance with the Mosaic 
dispensation, and yet who attained such an eminence of virtue 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 25 

as is honored with the Divine approbation, and who discovers 
such an assured hope of a final deliverance from all the evils 
of sin, as implies that his soul was illuminated with more 
than human knowledge. There are numberless ways in 
which the Father of Spirits may extend the knowledge of 
Christ to all those whose names enter into the decree of 
election, whatever be the circumstances in which they are 
placed; and we need not be surprised that the Scriptures 
give no aid to our conjectures as to the time or the manner 
of their illumination. For it may be observed in general, 
that while we are fully instructed in every thing which can 
serve to direct our conduct, we are kept in the dark as to 
every thing that may serve only to gratify our curiosity ; and 
with regard to this particular point, it appears that the 
Scriptures give us no light ; for this reason, that the condition 
and the fate of persons, who are not favored with the outward 
means of knowing Christ, form no rule to us who enjoy 
them. Whatever extraordinary revelation the mercy of God 
may vouchsafe to men in a different situation, our advantages 
serve at once to point out our duty, and to set bounds to our 
expectations; and all that concerns our everlasting peace is 
couched in the spirit of those significant words which our 
Lord puts into the mouth of Abraham as an answer to the 
request of the rich man, who asked that Lazarus might be 
sent from the other world to his father's house to testify to 
his live brethren : they have Moses and the prophets, let 
them hear them." 

Here is a fair admission that Job was saved, who had no 
knowledge of a written revelation, as well as all others whose 
names enter into the decree of election, but how they could 
be saved the writer does not know, and concludes that God 
has left us in the dark. To my mind this subject is not left 
in the dark, and was not altogether so to the doctor ; for he 
admits the fact that Job, as well as all other elect persons in 
all time who have not the outward means of knowing Christ, 
are saved by a divine illumination, and this illuminator is no 
other than the Holy Spirit, operating through the one only 
covenant of grace, and Jesus Christ the covenant head. Al 
those who hold to the decree of election, and a certain 
3 



26 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

number ordained to eternal life, believe that they are saved 
by a divine illumination, rega'rdless of time or place ; and 
if there is such a divine illumination given to the elect 
through Christ and his atonement, even where there is no 
written word or preached gospel, may it not be true that if 
Christ died for all, all have this divine illumination through 
that gracious medium, and have, consequently, the means of 
a possible salvation, though they live under the dispensation 
of natural religion ? Enoch and Melchisedec, it appears, were 
favored with the same illumination that Job was, while it 
does not appear that they were more favored with the outward 
means of grace than he was. But we are told that it does 
not concern us to know how such persons are saved, or how 
infants are saved, and that God has seen fit to withhold this 
knowledge from us and leave us in the dark. I think we are 
deeply interested in knowing whether there is a possible 
salvation for others, as well as ourselves, and that we must, 
and do know, that God has only one great plan of saving 
sinners. We are taught in the Scriptures that all are fallen, 
depraved, and condemned, and also that none can be saved 
without the blood of Christ and the sanctifying energy of 
the Holy Spirit — condemnation must be removed and holiness 
be imparted, or there is no admittance into heaven. The 
plan of salvation contemplates the removal of condemnation 
from the guilty and pollution from the unholy, and to effect 
this, both the atonement of Christ and the energy of the Holy 
Spirit are essentially necessary, as well where the gospel is 
preached as where it is not; consequently, in every age and 
place where sinners have been saved, we are certain the 
benefits of the atonement have extended and the Holy Spirit 
has operated, and this must continue to be so while the plan 
of God continues to be the same. If we believe that all 
infants, who die in a state of non-age are saved, we certainly 
claim to have some evidence on which that faith is founded, 
and we know as well how they are saved and through what 
plan, as we do how we ourselves are saved. That infants who 
die in infancy are saved on the same plan, both where there 
is and where there is no preached gospel, cannot be disputed 
on either the ground of reason or Scripture; and that the} 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 27 

are saved, is fully demonstrated from the spirit of the language 
of our Lord, who said, " Suiter the little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." Natural religion has been long spoken of as a 
barren waste, where mankind are left to their own reason 
and depraved nature, unaided and unpitied, and cut off from 
the means of a possible salvation, and left to grope their way 
to hell. Divines have manifested a proneness to limit man's 
salvation to the circulation of the written word, while the 
written word authorizes no such conclusion to my mind, 
but teaches the very reverse, as I have shown. "We hazard 
too much in limiting the salvation of our race to a written 
revelation ; precious as it is, we have no authority for it, for 
the Word of God is against it. Nor can we fix any standard 
of knowledge to which all persons must come before they 
can be renewed by the Spirit; nor do all in Christendom come 
up to the same standard of theoretical knowledge before 
they are regenerated. Multitudes, doubtless, are renewed by 
the Holy Spirit and love God and finally enter heaven, whose 
attainments in knowledge in this life are very low. God 
evidently designed the great plan of salvation to be universal, 
and adapted it in its provisions to the world in its variegated 
form. This view of the subject does not supersede the 
necessity and propriety of a written revelation and a preached 
gospel, for as much as God gave a revelation to the world by 
parcels, and from age to age, when there was before he gave 
it, either in part or in whole, a possible salvation in the world, 
and some were made partakers of it ; this he evidently did 
not do to make that possible which was so before, but to 
make it manifest, and to increase the light and to afford the 
best means for the improvement of virtue and morality. 

The admission that God is the author of natural religion, 
and that he introduced it for the benefit of mankind, whose 
wants he fully comprehended, is sufficient to prove its utility 
and real adaptation to the condition and wants of the world 
at the time ; and one single case of salvation under such 
dispensation demonstrates that it contained all the essential 
elements of the. real plan of salvation, and could not be 
different in its provisions and essential influences from the 



28 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

plan revealed. In this opinion, I am the more fully confirmed 
by the declaration, "that there is no other name given under 
heaven among men whereby we can be saved, but the name 
of Jesus, who is the only rock of our salvation." Nothing 
can be more absurd than to suppose that God has had two 
or more schemes of salvation for the work, or that he 
introduced a scheme {it any time for the benefit of the world 
and made it to depend entirely upon the reason of man, 
unaided by divine influence, when he knew that reason is 
utterly incompetent to reach its saving benefits. For if man 
is now, since a revelation is given, incompetent to reach 
its saving benefits, he certainly has always been so since 
the fall, and to give him a religion and withhold the 
essential means of its efficiency, amounts to a contra- 
diction, and is the same as no religion at all. The 
supposition that the salvation of the world depends entirely 
upon a written revelation, attaches .truly a very great 
importance to the word, but may it not be carried to such an 
extreme as to detract from the influence of the Holy Spirit, 
and throw man upon reason ? There is no propriety in 
detracting from either — let both have their place and 
importance in the plan of God. Revelation has enlightened 
the world, improved its morals, and greatly extended Zion, 
but as the ways of God are equal, and he has no pleasure in 
the death of the wicked, thousands of souls will have reached 
heaven by virtue of the blood of Christ, applied to them by 
the Holy Spirit long before the written law and preached 
word reaches the place of their former abode in this world, 
and it will he seen that they stand upon the same rock with 
those who were saved in a gospel land, and were justified by 
the same righteousness, and washed from their sins with the 
same blood, applied by the same Holy Spirit, and will 'give 
glory to God and the Lamb, who liveth forever and ever. 
The difference between natural and revealed religion consists 
alone, as I conceive, in the letter, and not in the spirit; and 
revealed religion is founded upon natural religion, and gives 
a fuller development of it, and sheds a light upon the plan 
of God not known before as it is now revealed unto us by 
his holy prophets and apostles. But none of us now compre- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 29 

hend it all, nor can we tell what is the least degree of 
knowledge which God requires of his redeemed creatures in 
order to be saved by the blood of Christ. We confidently 
believe that he has in time saved multitudes who had much 
less theoretical knowledge of the plan of salvation, and of 
justification by the righteousness of Christ, than many of us 
have who are yet in our sins in this gospel land, with our 
superior knowledge, for none can tell each degree of 
knowledge which God requires from the infant and idiot up, 
in order to salvation. But it becomes us to know that God 
has provided salvation for the world in one great plan, and 
the means of its application under all dispensations, and that 
the plan and the means of application are adapted to the 
world in all its diversity, for whom the provision was made ; 
and that he, moreover, has graduated the condition of salva- 
tion accordingly, and requires of his creatures according to 
the gift; and as the light is increased, the responsibility is 
increased with it, so that God's ways are seen to be equal. 
The declaration of the Lord is, "that he has no pleasure in 
the death of the wicked, but that he turn from his evil way 
and live." Without Christ and the Holy Spirit, natural 
religion is nothing and revealed religion is nothing, for, 
deprived of these, none can be saved, with these all can be 
saved; and if they are not when God shews it unto them 
and writes the law in their hearts by his Spirit, then they will 
be without excuse before him in the day of judgment. 

To us there appears to be many things in nature which 
are not equal, and especially among men, yet God declares 
his ways to be equal, which must be true. As we believe 
this declaration to relate mainly to the eternal destiny of 
man, we are led reasonably to the conclusion that this 
equality will be made manifest in the day of final retribu- 
tion, when God will judge the world in righteousness, and 
reward every man according to his works and opportunities 
in this life. If it were so that one part of the race has been 
provided for, and the means of a possible salvation afforded, 
while the other part have none, we must, of course, see that 
these being the ways of God, they are not equal, as the con- 
dition of the one part is in no respect equal to the other, and 



30 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

the only sense in which we can conceive of any equality in 
the day of retribution would be to excuse the party not pro- 
vided for, and who had no opportunity of being saved, and 
leave them to wander through interminable mazes. But we 
are certain that God's ways are all equal, however unable we 
may be to comprehend them, and, having provided salvation 
for all men and the essential means thereof, whatever may be 
the advantage which one portion of the race has over another, 
God is able to make up the deficit to the other part, by giving 
them greater light in some other way, so as to make all things 
equal. If, therefore, Jesus Christ tasted death for every man, 
it is certain God provided the means of a possible salvation 
for all, and if, as we see, that one part of the world had no 
written revelation, it is fully competent for God to make up 
to that part that lacked, by giving to them more of the influ- 
ence of the Holy Spirit, so that all men shall, in the day of 
judgment, acknowledge the truth of what God hath said, 
and say, Thy ways are equal : " Great and marvelous are thy 
works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou 
King of saints." That all sane men, from the creation of the 
world to this time, have some knowledge of the being of God, 
is what the Bible teaches ; and this knowledge they have, both 
by the light of nature and the light of the omnipresent Spirit, 
who writes it in their hearts and shews it unto them. As Paul 
says, " Yet many of them, when they knew him or his being, 
glorified him not as God, but changed the glory of the incor- 
ruptible God into an image, made like to corruptible man, 
and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things." 
While it is true, undeniably so, that idolatry abounds where 
the Bible is not, and the multitudes have only the light of 
natural religion, this cannot be the result of natural religion, 
any more than similar evils are the result of revealed relig- 
ion, for God cannot be the author of an institution which 
must and will favor such results; and surely he is as much 
the author of the one as of the other; both are from him, 
and revealed religion is only a clearer development of nat- 
ural religion, and objections against the one cannot fail of 
being such against the other. We find a vast amount of 
idolatry where the light of revelation shines, and, although 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 31 

it may not be as gross in our estimation as the worship of 
four-footed beasts and creeping things, it may be equally odi- 
ous in the sight of God, and he may as righteously exclude 
the votaries from the kingdom of heaven. Men, in every age 
and country, are worshipers; they will, they do worship, and 
while some worship the Host of heaven, or the likeness of 
men and beasts, others worship mammon in every shape and 
variety, and that, too, under the full blaze of gospel truth ; } T et 
no one will pretend to excuse them on the ground that they 
know no better, and allege that they are sincere and truly de- 
vout. Paul says of those heathen idolaters that they did know 
God, but when they did, they glorified him not as God, but 
became vain and foolish, and made and worshiped idols; and 
those who worship idols in Christendom know God as he is 
revealed in his Word, and they glorify him not, but, in the 
vanity of their minds, they worship every thing but God. No 
one, as I conceive, can well defend the truth of revealed relig- 
ion and deny that of natural religion, any more than he can 
defend the authenticity of the New Testament while he de- 
nies that of the Old; for as the Old and New Testaments es- 
tablish the truth of eaeh other, so natural and revealed relig- 
ion stand or fall together; for they are one great plan of God, 
and ever true, and all the essential provisions contained in the 
one for the salvation of the world must be in the other, whether 
we comprehend it or not. 

That which more particularly interests me in this argu- 
ment and inquiry is to ascertain whether or not natural relig- 
ion has been and now is of any vital importance to mankind, 
and to what extent provision has been made for the salvation 
of the world under that dispensation. It may be said this be- 
longs to God, and is no matter of concern to us. This, how- 
ever, carries as little weight with it, in checking my inquiries, 
as if it had been urged against inquiries touching revealed re- 
ligion, because we are all as deeply interested in the vital ele- 
ments of the one as of the other, and this will at once appear 
from the fact that they are a unit, and cannot be otherwise, 
as the covenant of redemption is but one, and Christ, the 
covenant-head, is the only Saviour of sinners, through whom 
all blessings flow. Now, as the present plan, made known to 



32 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

us by revelation, is a fall development of the old plan, which 
has extended at least from the tirst man down to us, we can 
bat feel interested in the whole of it, for we must take all or 
none in this respect; and, moreover, we must take the doc- 
trine of atonement as necessary for one and all, and the influ- 
ence of the Spirit, without which none can be saved. These 
are all known, by the light of revelation, to have existed be- 
fore they were revealed to us as they now are, and it is, more- 
over, revealed that some of the race were saved by them at 
an early day. But more: we are taught that Jesus Christ, 
by the grace of God, tasted death for every man, and cer- 
tainly nothing more was necessary for any man, nor would 
any thing less be of any avail. 

Theologians, however rigid in their views, have at least ad- 
mitted this much: i. e., that some were saved of both adults 
and infants, and some have gone so far as to admit that all 
infants who die in infancy are saved, irrespective of time or 
place, and have denominated them elect. This much admit- 
ted, shows that great good results to the world from natural 
religion, which is, in fact, the only religion for infants who 
die in a state of minority; and while.it does save them, and 
has saved some adults, it opens the way, so far as men are 
concerned in the argument, for me to prove the extent of 
provision for all, as a doctrine which is not inconsistent with 
the character of the moral governor of the universe, and cer- 
tainly not inconsistent with either natural or revealed relig- 
ion, but fully proven by the Bible to be true. It has been 
supposed that some men have been disposed to reject the 
necessity of revelation and its teachings on the ground that 
nothing more is necessary for mankind than natural religion, 
but it is more likely to be true that all those who reject re- 
vealed reject natural religion also, and it may be that the 
main reason why many have rejected both, is because many 
of the teachers of religion have inculcated that both natural 
and revealed religion show that there is a certain elect num- 
ber made certain of Heaven, and the rest doomed to perdition. 
They have concluded if this is so it will be so, and therefore 
they reject it all, and while they may claim to follow the 
light of nature, they only follow the lusts of the flesh. The 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 33 

wa}' to make- men reject the Bible and turn infidels, is to 
make them believe that the book called the Bible teaches 
that God, who made the world and all things, made a certain 
part of the race for hell, and passed them by and doomed 
them, while he ordained the other part, which were equally 
as vile by nature, to everlasting life. ' If this were true, we 
might say, Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we 
die. But not so, for it is said in his Word, " That God is not 
slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, 
but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should 
perish, but that all should come to repentance." 

That the ways of the Lord are equal, cannot be matter of 
doubt, admitting the truth of his Word, while it may be im- 
possible for us to comprehend the method by which he ad- 
justs and equalizes all things. 

That revelation which bears upon its pages the divine im- 
press of its gracious author, and has made its visible marks 
upon the world for good, is an increase of light and an addi- 
tional gift of God to the world, needs no other proof than 
what has been seen and felt of its blessed effects ; but this 
by no means gives any weight to the notion that a possible 
salvation w T as withheld from the world until it was given, or 
that salvation is limited, in any essential sense, to its circula- 
tion, but it affords additional evidence in the establishment 
of one great leading principle in the divine government: 
that the obligation increases with the light, and where much 
is given, much is required, and where little is given, little will 
be required, and where nothing is given, nothing will be re- 
quired, which appears to make all things equal in the divine 
administration. 

The parable of the talents sheds additional light upon 
this subject, and presents this principle of the divine ad- 
ministration with much force. We are told that the 
"kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far 
country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto 
them his goods, and unto one he gave five talents, to 
another two, and to another one; to every man accord- 
ing to his several ability; and straightway took his journey." 
This parable illustrates the great principle upon wmich God 



34 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

deals with mankind : he gives to some more, and to others 
less, but to every one according to the ability of each ; and 
this was done in view of a future reckoning upon righteous 
and equitable principles. We see, at once, that active im- 
provement is required of that which was intrusted, and noth- 
ing more; and improvement was as important in one case as 
another, and certainly of equal practicability, for the gift to 
every man was precisely as his ability. Now, if this princi- 
ple of the divine administration is true of the whole world — 
and who will venture to say it is not? — we have before our 
minds a possible salvation lor all men, infants and all, in all 
ages, suspended upon the agency of each, from the greatest 
to the very least degree of accountability, even down to in- 
fants, where we cannot conceive of any, and the final reck- 
oning is graduated accordingly, so that all are left without 
excuse; and the Lord's ways are seen to be equal. More- 
over, in conformity with this principle of divine administra- 
tion, it will appear evident that, as we are under obligations 
to God to improve all he has committed to us, it is, at once, 
our duty, as stewards of God, to impart the light of revela- 
tion to those who have it not, as it was the duty and privi- 
lege of those to whom it was first committed to impart it to 
us, and in this way God has appointed to give it to the world. 
In a word: all the light which has been given to us is of 
use, and has been given for a wise and good purpose, and to 
be improved; for, whatever may be the degrees of Heaven's 
gifts, whether more or less, he has never given less than he 
saw would answer a good purpose, if well improved, nor 
more than was fit and right to be improved to a good pur- 
pose, and whether he speaks to the world in the voice of na- 
ture or revelation, requiring obedience, with sanctions of 
eternal consequences, he ought to be obeyed, and will hold 
us responsible for what he places within our power. 



LECTURE II.— OFFICE-WORK OF THE HOLY 

SPIRIT. 



Fallen and depraved as we are, our salvation and deliver- 
ance from sin and all impurity depends upon the mercy of 
God. In the plan of recovery the Father is spoken of as 
loving the world and sending his Son to die for it, and the 
Son as coming obediently to do the will of the Father, and 
the Holy Spirit as sent to consummate this momentous work 
of grace in all its bearings. These three being one from 
eternity and immutable in all respects, can have only one 
will, which is known to us only in so far as it has been 
revealed. All outside of that is secret, but in perfect unison 
with the revealed will. From all this it will be seen that 
there is no less mercy and good will in the second and 
third persons of the Trinity than in the first. Whatever 
world, therefore, the Father loved, the Son redeemed, and the 
same is graciously cared for by the Holy Spirit, and will be 
attended to in due time in perfect conformity with the 
scheme of salvation. Although Christ tasted death for all 
and every one of the race, yet no true and sound Protestant 
cm conceive of a possible salvation without the office-work 
of the Spirit. This is deemed essential by all. On the 
hypothesis, therefore, that Christ died for all, I shall 
proceed — 

1. To show that the Spirit illuminates all. This could not 
be otherwise, as the Holy Spirit has no will different from 
that which is found in the two first persons of the Godhead. 
In the Scriptures of divine truth it is said "that light 
maketh manifest." "For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea 
the deep things of God." — 1 Cor. n. 10. "But the manifes- 
tation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withaL" — 

(35) 



36 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

1 Cor. xii. 7. " That was the true Light, which lighteth 
every man that cometh into the world." — John i. 9. " He 
will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and 
of judgment." — John xvi. 8. The Spirit knows the mind 
and will of God in all respects, and hU light being given to 
all, to every man that cometh into the world to profit withal, 
it would be most reasonable to suppose that all might he 
saved, and that such is the will of God. And if there were 
only one will concerned and consulted in the salvation of 
man, who could say from the authority of God's Word that 
all would not be saved? For certainly it is the will and 
plan of God that all men should be saved. " For this is 
good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who 
will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowl- 
edge of the truth." — 1 Tim. n. 3, 4. u The Lord is not slack 
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is 
long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, 
but that all should come to repentance." — 2 Peter in. 9. 
While the Spirit enlightens every man that comes into the 
world, all that have life and being, and it is his will and 
pleasure to save them, as we have seen, yet all are not saved ; 
some are evidently lost. Christ, however, gives the true and 
only reason why this is so. He says, "Ye will not come to 
me that ye might have life." From this it is manifest that 
man must also will his own salvation or he will not be saved, 
though God does will it. If man's salvation depends upon 
the influence of the Spirit and he wills it, he certainly gives 
the fall measure, all that is necessary in the case, and with- 
holds none. But if it were true that man has lost his will, 
and can no more exercise it in coming to Christ than he can 
by his own effort save himself without him, and yet cannot 
restore his lost will, is he justly chargeable with his own 
ruin? The reason why Christ redeemed man is that he 
could not do it himself, and the Lord willed his salvation. 
Then for the like reason, divine influence being equally 
essential and necessary, it is given to all to profit withal.. 
But if there is yet something back of all this necessary to 
be done, which mortal men cannot do for themselves, and its 
ever being done depends on God the Holy Spirit, could he 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 37 

truly will their salvation and not do it for them ? To me it 
is apparent that the design and will of God being gracious, 
all impossibilities should be taken out of the way, otherwise 
the plan is not well adapted and is no possible scheme for us. 
Then, on the supposition that such a work is necessary in 
one case, is it not necessary, equally so, in all? This being 
true, could it be said of God that he willed the salvation of 
any one beyond the limits of such an influence and work? 
Certainly not. For he wills no impossibilities and commands 
none, and could inflict no righteous punishment in such 
cases. In all such cases where there are impossibilities in 
the way, they are to be removed by the competent power, 
and must be, or salvation is impossible. Such a work of the 
Spirit might be termed an effectual call, which either renders 
salvation possible or certain. It is said to render it infallibly 
certain in all cases, but all are doomed to perdition beyond its 
limits — none can or ever will accept offered mercy. Divine 
influence is just as essential as the blood of Christ, and 
none can be saved without its saving efficacy ; but whether 
such calls are given unconditionally is seriously doubtejd and 
the proof is called for. Calls which are not effectual are 
termed common, and from all we can learn of them they are 
of no avail and never terminate in salvation. It is, however, 
said they leave such as have them without excuse, but how 
this can be when there was no gracious design in the giver is 
what we cannot see, and no one has been able to inform us. 
.No such call has ever brought any one to Christ, and none 
can be guilty for not coming when they could not and the 
giver did not intend they should. Every call given by the 
Spirit is gracious in the design of the giver, and must be so 
or it amounts to no call. There are effectual and ineffectual 
calls, but this depends on other circumstances and not on 
the nature of the calls. Calls given by the Spirit are all 
given with a gracious purpose and good will, but none of 
them ever become effectual unless they are attended to and 
obeyed by those who are called. God's calls to the world 
are conditional, and faith in Christ is the condition on which 
this whole matter hinges and turns. Outside of this and 
contrary to it, we have no assurance from the Word of God 



OS MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of any saving results. Why some turn to heaven and others to 
hell is either the fault of God or of sinners. No one who claims 
to have due reverence for the Divine Being will attribute crime 
to him, or in any sense fault him for the ruin of the lost; 
they are most assuredly their own destroyers. If, however, 
there should be any impossibilities in the way of man which 
he cannot remove, which can only be overcome by the Lord, 
should he fail to do it, man is not guilty — it was his misfor- 
tune and not his sin. In all the wide range of divine truth 
it cannot be shown in one single case where there is any 
responsibility or liability to sin, where the subject is either 
under the fate of necessity or hedged in on every side with 
the iron walls of impossibility. And certainly all hindrances 
of every kind which God knows to lie in the way of man's 
salvation he w r ill remove or has removed. These have been 
provided for by Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Christ 
has done his work and the Spirit will do his. And if it was 
the purpose of God to save one responsible sinner uncondi- 
tionally, irrespective of his free choice, and he could not in 
conformity with the plan be saved in any other way, then it 
was his purpose either to save all in that way or doom the 
residue to perdition without mercy. But if it was his 
purpose and plan to save conditionally, and that condition is 
a possible one — placed under the control of the subject — he 
will only save such as comply with it. An effectual call, as 
it is termed, if it be necessary in one case is so in all, and all 
must have it or their call is worthless. Those who believe 
in effectual calling cannot presume to think or say that any 
will or can be saved beyond its range — all is death beyond 
effectual calls. These calls are of course attributable to the 
Holy Spirit. It is his office-work, and man's salvation 
depends upon it, as we are told, and it is done on sovereign, 
absolute principles. It makes salvation both possible and 
certain. Then w^hat does it consist in if it is anything more 
than the illumination of the Spirit? In answer to our 
earnest inquiries we are informed that effectual calling is 
this : " All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, 
and those only, he is pleased in his appointed and accepted 
time, effectually to call by his word and Spirit out of that 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 39 

state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace 
and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds 
spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, 
taking away their heart of stone and giving unto them a 
heart of flesh ; renewing their w T ills, and by his almighty 
power determining them to that which is good, and effectu- 
ally drawing them to Jesus Christ ; yet so as they come most 
freely, being made willing by his grace." — Westminster Con- 
fession, chap. x. Effectual calling, as here taught, is only 
another name for regeneration, for we are informed in the 
same connection, " that man is enabled to obey this call by 
the quickening and renewing of the Holy Spirit; he is both 
quickened and renewed, and in no instance does any one 
come to Christ and accept life until he is renewed." Though 
it is said " they come most freely, yet they are drawn and 
determined by almighty power." It is therefore most mani- 
fest that effectual calling, as taught here, is incorporated in 
the scheme of predestination and unconditional salvation, 
and constitutes the working power which consummates the 
entire scheme. According to this system it is plainly to be 
seen why some are saved and others lost. For all turns 
with effectual calling unconditionally given, and while the 
called obey and enter into life by the determination of the 
Almighty, the uncalled are equally determined to disobe- 
dience and perdition. For this determination of the calling 
power works both ways, for while it determines to give on 
the one hand, it determines to withhold on the other. Effect- 
ual calling is, therefore, out of place as an integral part of 
any other system of doctrine than rigid Calvinism. That is 
its home and place. As said before, God calls " even the 
very ends of the earth to look unto him and be saved," and 
the effectuality thereof depends upon the action of the heart 
and choice of the will. Our Lord truly saia to the Jews, 
"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath 
sent me draw him : and I will raise him up at the last day." 
This has the semblance of effectual calling, taken apart from 
other portions of Scripture, but connected we have addi- 
tional light. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me." — John vi. 44; xn. 32. Christ says 



40 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

they must be drawn or they cannot come. Again, he says 
he will draw all men unto himself. Neither of these texts 
can have any reference to effectual calling, or they both, 
have, one as much as the other. If the latter were so 
applied, it would favor, yea prove, universal salvation, for 
Christ was lifted up. This is not controverted. But univer- 
sal salvation cannot be true, for some are already lost. I 
therefore come to the conclusion that effectual calling is not 
to be inferred from either passage, for both have the same 
features, only the latter takes the widest range, and includes 
all men in whatever was promised by the Son of God. The 
safe conclusion, therefore, is that the drawing of the Father 
and the Son cannot be in any essential respect different 
either in nature or degree from that of the Holy Spirit, for 
these three are one, and have one and the same good will. 
A well-adapted plan for the salvation of the whole world, 
including all the essential means of grace, and especially the 
promised measure of the Spirit's influence to profit withal, 
is substantially the whole sum of God's calling and drawing 
of men anterior to faith in Christ. Here it becomes effectual 
in regeneration and a new heart and not otherwise. For it 
is impossible for us to conceive the fitness of our Lord's 
rebuke of the obstinate Jews when he said, " Ye will not 
come to me that ye might have life," should there be one 
particle of truth in effectual calling as we have seen it. If 
they could not come to him without this call and almighty 
determination a3 in effectual calling, and he whose preroga- 
tive it is to impart it would not do it, how could they come, 
and how could they be chided or condemned for not doing 
so ? Impossibilities in all cases constitute the best of excuses. 
Our duty and responsibility begin at the point and time of 
our calling, and especially is this true in relation to our 
eternal peace and happiness. All beyond this line is in the 
hands of God and under his control, while we mortals are 
not consulted. All the gifts bestowed on the race uncondi- 
tionally and absolutely, are free and gracious and flow with 
infallible certainty, and we are never consulted in the case 
in the slightest degree. Such were the gifts of the Son of 
God and the Holy Spirit to enlighten the world. God loved 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 41 

the world and gave his Son to redeem it, and the Spirit is sent 
to reprove and call it. Here is neither repentance nor faith, 
but those gifts flow to us unconditionally. Well has Paul 
said, " For the gifts and calling of God are without repent- 
ance." — Rom. xi. 29. • Repentance and faith follow these 
and are made possible by them, being founded on them, but 
never precede them, nor constitute any condition of the 
bestowment. But in all cases where a new heart is spoken 
of and etertial life tendered, it is different, as repentance and 
faith are brought to view and required as conditions. The 
influence of the Spirit is to be cherished and improved ; for 
it is said, " Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out 
my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto 
you." — Prov. i.' 23. If some have more and others less of 
the Spirit's influence, it must be in consequence of the im- 
provement or the mis-improvement of each under such influ- 
ence, as the Spirit is not partial in his gifts. The counsel is 
to turn at the reproof of the Spirit and he will be poured 
out; there will be an increase of light, and God will make 
his words known and eternal life sure. The only safe and 
scriptural view to be taken of this subject is that the Holy 
Spirit in his office- work illuminates the entire race with a 
most gracious design, as he could have no other, and this 
constitutes the only call of any avail. Nor will this be so 
and terminate well and result in eternal life, only as it is 
obeyed. The Spirit is omnipresent and moves upon all men 
every where, even to the ends of the world. There is no 
possible salvation without him, though the Bible were there 
and the gospel preached ; but where he is and works for 
good, there is salvation though the written Word might be 
wanting. The influence of the Spirit and the agency of man 
are both requisite and essential in their place; one is the 
giving and the other the receiving power. It is said in the 
Scriptures, " Many are called, but few are chosen." — Matt. 
xxii. 14. " I have called and ye refused." — Prov. i. 24. " Ye 
stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do 
always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do 
ye." The Spirit strives and calls. "Many are called, 
and few chosen " or saved. One main reason may be 
4 



42 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

given for this : the call was not heeded while the Spirit was 
resisted. 

To say the least of effectual calling as taught in some 
instances, it has no tendency to honor the Lord, but has the 
opposite bearing, and must be erroneous and most pernicious. 
God, who is gracious and has no pleasure in the death of the 
ungodly, is represented as being pleased to withhold the very 
means on which salvation turns; he wills it and is pleased 
to do it, and it is said to be for his own glory. On the other 
hand, he works effectively, renews, determines, draws, and 
with almighty power brings others to accept of life. But 
stranger still, it is said " they come most freely, being made 
willing by his grace " — almighty power. All this is denied by 
the Lord. He disclaims such things. " As I live, saith the 
Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; 
but that the wicked turn from his way and live." 

2. Next, I may remark, the office- work of the Spirit is to 
regenerate. This is a saving work. It gives a fitness for 
heaven, and differs from divine illumination in that the 
saving grace of God is powerfully revealed and brought to 
bear upon the heart. The old man is crucified with the 
affections and lusts, and the new man enthroned in 
the heart. "Christ is our life," and this is hid in God 
by the work of the Spirit in regeneration. Whatever 
agencies the Spirit may see fit to employ in this work, they 
are only instruments in his hands aud nothing more, never 
constituting essential elements of the working power, for 
the Spirit may or may not use them as he may choose. 
Hence, the written Word and ordinances of the Church may 
be used, as they doubtless are in many cases, but not neces- 
sarily and invariably, so that none are regenerated without 
their use. And when used, they contribute nothing to the 
efficacy of saving grace or to the Spirit that applies it to the 
heart. He is competent and the independent giver of end- 
less life. This is a great work, always bearing the divine 
impress, which is invariably left on the heart renewed by the 
Spirit. There is no space between life and death, a change 
and no change. We are either in one or the other of these 
conditions; either dead or alive, changed thoroughly or not 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 43 

changed at all. This work is seripturally denominated a 
passing from death unto life, a resurrection, a new birth, a 
washing of regeneration, and this is done by the self-same 
Spirit. "Not by works of righteousness which we have 
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the wash- 
ing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which 
he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord." — 
Titus in. 5, 6. " Which were born, not of blood, nor of the 
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." — 
John I. 18. "We are born of the Spirit, changed into the 
image of God by the Spirit, and are all baptized into one 
body by the Spirit." — John in. 8 ; 2 Cor. in. 18; 1 Cor. xn. 
13. No one can bear the image of God until the change is 
thorough, for he never impresses his image upon any unfin- 
ished work, nor can any one ever feel the witness of the 
Spirit that he is a new creature in Christ until he passes the 
ordeal and is such in fact. 

3. But the office-work of the Spirit does not close here. 
He is a witness of his own work. He moved upon the 
broad face of the old creation and left his foot-prints on it, 
and fails not to give testimony to the new work of his hands 
in the day of his power. And as truly as we can know the 
reality of visible things by vision, we can know the reality 
of regeneration by the Spirit and the living God within us 
when we feel him. "Know ye not that ye are the temple 
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" — 
1 Cor. in. 16. " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our 
spirit that we are the children of God." — Rom. vin. 16. If 
when our houses are empty we can know it, much more 
ought we to know when they are full. If we are children 
of God, he dwells in us and bears witness to make his pres- 
ence known. If we have no evidence of this kind in our 
heart, it should never be taken as true that no such testi- 
mony exists, but that w T e ourselves are not the children of 
God or we would feel it, for he beareth witness with such, 
and the witness is true. The want of evidence in our heart 
that we are the children of God is the most reliable evidence 
that we are yet in our sins. The Spirit is as faithful in bearing 
witness as he is in doing the work. Let none, therefore, 



44 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

flatter themselves that thej have passed from death unto life, 
when their own spirit within them cannot respond to the 
Spirit of God that he. is in them of a truth. 

4. To comfort the hearts of God's people is also the office- 
work of the Spirit. John xiv. 16, 17 : " And I will pray the 
Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he 
may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth ; whom 
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither 
knoweth him : but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, 
and shall be in you." The future heaven of all God's people 
begins here, and manifestly begins in their souls at the time 
of their regeneration. Consolation flows from the Spirit, for 
the Holy Ghost is the Comforter. He dwells in the children 
of God forever. Christ says, "The kingdom of God is 
within you." — Luke xvn. 21. And Paul says, " It is right- 
eousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." — Rom. 
xiv. 17. Christ having promised that he and the Father 
would make their abode with his people, we see that the 
other Comforter is the Holy Spirit. These three are the 
legacy of all such as love God, and where the fountain of life 
dwells there must be living joy, true comfort. Rejoicing 
Christians have been derided by carnal professors in all ages 
of the Church, and even hated. Nevertheless, these are the 
only witnesses of Jesus Christ, and no others have any script- 
ural evidence of their acceptance with God and future glory. 
None from this world have ever entered heaven who 
were not born of the Spirit, and none were born of 
the Spirit in whom he did not dwell and fill them full 
of God. And can it be thought that such have no 
comfort and joy whose hearts are full of the Holy One? 
Long has the adversary hated and fought against spiritual 
religion with his carnal influences, and with fearful success. 
How often has living joy in the hearts of the Lord's 
people met with repulses and stern opposition from the 
ministers of the sanctuary, who have brought down showers 
of snow upon the holy enkindlings of the Spirit? Formality 
in the pulpit begets its like in the people and builds up 
formal churches — the sorest curse that ever befel any people. 
VVhen the Scriptures of divine truth demonstrate so fully 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 45 

that the heart born of God has the abiding of the Holy 
Spirit, how strange mast it appear that any one claiming to 
be Christ should ever have denied God — the living God in 
the souls of his people and their consequent joy. As truly 
as the Lord lives in the universe, he lives in the hearts of his 
children, and will never leave nor forsake them. This is 
their fountain of life within, rising upward, the rock of their 
safety and assurance forever. " There is a river, the streams 
whereof make glad the city of God." 

5. It is the work of the Spirit to strengthen and lead his 
people to glory. The Lord hath said, "I. will never leave 
thee nor forsake thee." — Heb. xin. 5. His care is tender 
and constant through life's pilgrimage and his promise will 
never fail, "for he will keep that which is committed to his 
hands against that day." The time of trusting in Christ is 
the time of sealing or confirmation by the Spirit, as Paul 
says: "In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed 
with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our 
inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession 
unto the praise of his glory." — Eph. i. 13, 14. Those whom 
the Lord seals, in them he dwells to guide, comfort, 
strengthen, keep, and save, that they may be with him and 
behold his glory. The work of salvation by grace is begun by 
the Spirit, and every work he begins he finishes. There are 
no failures; there never has been and never will be any. 
God never begun a work yet which he will not as certainly 
finish as he begins it. This is a most precious doctrine and 
full of comfort to the children of God in the midst of foes 
and conflicts. "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," 
but abide with thee even to the end, is the sure promise of 
the Lord. He was with Daniel in the lion's den, with the 
faithful in the heated furnace, and with Paul and others in 
prisons and conflicts, working mighty deliverances. The 
constant presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit is as 
much the object of faith when the heart trusts in Christ as 
Christ himself, and is as fully secured to do all his work 
in the plan. And although this may not be developed to the 
mind of the believer at the time he trusts in Christ, it is an 
essential element of the plan, and is at once the soul's 



46 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

voucher for heaven. The contrary of this opinion is nil 
gloom and uncertainty. There is no comfort to the heart, 
no strength in trials, and no victory in our contest with the 
world, the flesh, and Satan. But if the mighty One of Jacob 
is with us and in us, our cause is safe and the crown sure at 
last. Help and guidance in every time of need is the excel- 
lency and glory of the scheme of recovery. The Holy Spirit 
as the divine reprover may be and has been repulsed and 
grieved from the heart, but when has he ever left the Chris- 
tian heart in which he once dwelt? There are general prov- 
idences, but this is special in the true sense. It is God in 
the heart as in a temple, making himself known and felt 
therein. The mysterious and sublime doctrine of the 
Trinity shines out as brilliantly in this view as in any other. 
Each person does his work. The Father sent the Son, who 
finished his work and ascended never to suffer again. The 
work yet to be done is with the Spirit, who will finish his 
before he leaves. And here let me say, whenever and wher- 
ever he applies the blood of Christ, its virtue to save will be 
fully tested, and the end thereof will be eternal life without 
a failure, for the efficacy of the blood and the power of the 
Spirit are competent and the work will be done. 

6. Furthermore, it is the office-work of the Spirit to give 
fruitful ness and prosperity to the Church. Christian fruits 
are the fruits of the Spirit. These are " love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper- 
ance : against such there is no law." I do not intend to say 
that these fruits are alike abundant in all regenerated per- 
sons, but that none except such ever yield them. The oppo- 
site of these is the yield of the flesh. While such fruit is of 
the Spirit, we are to work out what he works in us, to walk, 
and live, and war after his holy influences, or we shall be 
barren and unfruitful. But is it so that the unfruitful have 
any evidence of their acceptance with God? or give any to 
the Church and the world? Surely not, for barrenness is as 
reliable testimony against the goodness of a tree as good 
fruit is of its goodness. u Make the tree good and the fruit 
will be good," said our Lord. There will not only be fruit, 
but it will be good. The tree is known by its fruit. The 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 47 

inquiry may be made, Is good fruit the fruit of the Spirit — 
such as love and joy — the condition of salvation, or any part 
of it? The answer is, as it must be, in the negative. This 
fruit, and especially love and joy, is not only that of the 
Spirit but of the regenerated heart, and could never be 
required of an unrenewed person in the exercise of faith in 
the Son of God, which is the condition of salvation. To 
love God with all the heart and our brethren as ourselves is 
the sum total of religion, and could not be required as the 
condition of any thing from unregenerate persons. The 
condition would not only be impossible, but it would be 
equal to the consideration tendered, if not the very same. The 
fruits of the Spirit are required of Christians, which is com 
patible with their new nature, but not as any condition of 
life, as they have this by their spiritual birth and union with 
Christ at the time. The condition of salvation cannot be 
salvation itself, or the exercise of a new heart filled with the 
Spirit, which is its equivalent. It must be something else 
very different. A new heart is the thing wanted; heaven 
and glory depend upon it, and if the sinner must love God 
as the condition of it, and his salvation depends and is sus- 
pended on it, who does not see at once he must be lost? for 
this condition w^ould be identical with changing his own 
heart or that the Lord do it unconditionally. Good fruits 
and good works are required of Christians who have the 
Spirit of the Lord, but never is their certainty of heaven 
suspended on thes'e. Their certainty became a fact at the 
time of their spiritual birth, when Christ became their life, 
and this being hid with him in God, when he appears they 
shall appear with him in glory. These fruits have their use 
and reward as such in many ways. They are useful to the 
Church and the world as light and salt, and doubtless our 
own comforts and joys in this life are closely connected with 
them. There may also be a reward in the next life, as God 
has promised to reward every man according to his works. 
But salvation is no part of that reward, as that is of grace 
and is the gift of God. All good may be ascribed to God, 
and ought to be, and good people are his instruments in the 
conversion of the world. When holy men of God spake in 



48 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

former days, they spake as the Spirit gave them utterance. 
When the apostles preached Christ and the resurrection, it 
was in demonstration of the Spirit and in power, but God 
gave the increase. Every good and perfect gift comes down 
from the immutable Father of light. We must have the 
Holy Ghost in our hearts and enter the pulpit with him 
there, that he may stir us to rouse a slumbering world and 
warm a cold-hearted Church. Our success in bringing souls 
from darkness to light and from the dominion of sin unto 
God, depends more on the holy unction than stern orthodoxy 5 
or our natural or acquired abilities. These are not to be 
despised, they are good in their place; but destitute of the 
Holy Spirit, no man can accomplish good in this work. 
His presence and aid are as necessary as life to action. In 
fact, God's words, to have power and burning heat, must be 
spoken by himself though he should speak through us. A 
living minister is one who is filled with the living God, and 
the outgoings of his full soul are the outgoings of God from 
his heart to other hearts. In this way God is seen and 
felt in the Church and the world, and his kingdom extends 
over falling powers. If at this day and time men's hearts 
are not inspired as were the apostles, and their hands 
strengthened to work miracles, yet the constant presence of 
the Holy Spirit is no less necessary and no less certain, and 
his gifts are indispensable in all the Church, for no Church 
can prosper unless the living One is among the candlesticks 
to replenish them with oil. Lord God, give us the Holy 
Spirit in our pulpits and Churches, that we may live and 
prosper and not pine away and die. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 49 



LECTURE III.— GOD THE CREATOR. 



1. In approaching a subject so profound and incomprehen- 
sible, while there is a feeling of deep anxiety to say some- 
thing, there is, at the same time, a conscious feeling of ina- 
bility to add any thing to what has already appeared in 
numerous theological works, written by the wise and learned 
of former ages. All, however, are ready to admit that the 
subject remains unexplored beyond a certain limit, and must 
of necessity so continue. There is, however, one reason, at 
least, which prompts me in this effort, namely : different 
minds think and say the same things in different forms, 
which may render good service to some of the race, being, 
in some way, better adapted to their own way of thinking. 
There will be no attempt at either argument or proof, to 
establish the existence of God, inasmuch as no inspired man 
has ever made an attempt of the kind, aud set any such, ex- 
ample with design. It is a matter of some surprise that 
neither prophets nor apostles, in all they have written, have 
ever made one attempt to prove that there is a God; nor has 
God himself done any thing of the kind. God speaks, and 
all inspired men speak of him as having spoken, which is all 
the proof that could be given that he who speaks is a living 
person. This is one of the self-evident facts which needs no 
proof, and where none can be given to make it more certain. 
It is at once addressed to the consciousness and universal con- 
viction of all intelligent beings. Proof offered here, would 
be as useless and as uncalled for as proof to convince a ra- 
tional man that he existed. We might be entertained and 
amused with such arguments; but if we doubted our own 
existence before, we should continue so to do after all the ar- 
gument and proof which could be given. Much time and la- 
bor, in my opinion, have been wasted in attempts to prove 



50 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

this self-evident truth, which required none, and was nothing 
bettered by it. This is, in fact, the very foundation of the 
whole temple of truth, upon which all truths are founded; 
outside of which, and independent of it, nothing can be es- 
tablished. We ourselves, who live, and breathe, and move, 
are, of all others, the last persons who require proof of the 
fact, and if we should require it, the labor would all be lost. 
At this very point we stand overwhelmed with this self-evi- 
dent truth, that, while we are conscious of our own exist- 
ence, we are equally certain that we were created by 
another — we have a creator. I take it as the foundation of 
all truth, and the predicate of all argument, asking no other 
proof than what I have in me and carry about with me, that 
there is a God. And it is seriously doubted whether there 
is an intelligent, conscious being in the universe that doubts 
the existence of the uncreated Jehovah, or needs any proof 
of the fact, other than that God has given him and inter- 
woven in his very existence, and which he can no more ques- 
tion than his own being. Were it not so that we have some 
great leading, self-evident truths, which stand out and fasten 
universal conviction in the minds of all rational beings, it 
would be impossible to find any ultimate truth or to estab- 
lish any thing. That with which we begin, and on which we 
build, must be an axiom admitted by all, requiring no proof. 
Take, for the sake of illustration, the following case. The 
globe on which we live and move is a reality, and we all 
know it, and we also know that there is a great light called 
the sun. These are facts never called in question, nor requir- 
ing any proof. But suppose these facts were questioned and 
proof demanded, how would any sane man begin ? What proof 
would he present, and on what would he predicate it? He 
never could find any stand-point on which to plant himself, 
or any fact more self-evident than the fact to be proven : con- 
sequently, as a rational man, he must give up the case in de- 
spair, and turn off from the simple with disgust. 

2. If any of the race have at any time called in question 
the essential existence of the Creator of all things, they were 
not fit subjects for the labors of rational men, nor would time 
be well spent with them ; nor can it be shown that any of 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 51 

that class have ever been convinced by all that has been writ- 
ten and done by men ; the labor has been lost. I offer no 
proof to establish the existence of God, believing, as I do, 
that he requires nothing of the kind at the hand of any man. 
For, as I have said already, he has not made an advance in 
that direction himself, nor even affirmed it, nor has any in- 
spired man, as recorded in the Bible, ever given to the world 
any thing more as proof than the announcement of the fact 
that God is and lives, and all beings and things are by him 
and for him. It must be, of all others, the most glaring ab- 
surdity to suppose that there is an omnipresent Being whose 
existence is not fully demonstrated by himself in a way to be 
known as no other truth is. He who formed the soul could 
and did form it to know him intuitively, or by his presence 
in it as truly as out of it. The admission that this founda- 
tion truth requires proof, other than has been stated, is a sac- 
rifice not demanded by reason or righteousness; and such an 
attempt is no part of a minister's work. Hence, we take it 
to be an incontrovertible, universal, self-evident truth, 
throughout heaven, earth, and hell, disputed nowhere, ex- 
cept among men who have parted with their reason and are 
classed with fools, hopeless and lost. 

The Psalmist says: " The heavens declare the glory of God : 
and the firmament sheweth his handy work. Day unto day 
uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not 
heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and 
their words to the end of the world." — Psa. xix. 1, 2, 3, 4. 
" The heavens declare the glory of God." His great power 
and glory are seen everywhere and in every thing, and we 
see it in our own frame-work, and feel it in our souls; as 
Paul has said : " Because that which may be known of God 
is manifest in them ; for God hath shewed it unto them. 
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the 
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that 
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead: so that they 
are without excuse." — Romans i. 19, 20. As the builder of 
a house is known by the house he built, so God is known by 
his works; they declare his pow T er and Godhead in the ere- 



52 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

ated universe. And, in addition to this, his living presence 
everywhere impresses this truth, wherever he exists and 
moves, so that all are without excuse. Paul says God hath 
shewed it unto them, and they know it. 

3. Jehovah. — This is one of the names given by the uncre- 
ated One to himself, and, doubtless, signifies as much as could 
be expressed in one word. This being, who speaks and says, 
I Am, I Am Jehovah, exists, has existed from eternity, will 
exist forever, is infinite in all his perfections and attributes, 
independent of all other beings, and the being who has a 
claim upon all others, and a right to their worship and ado- 
ration. Jehovah is his name, who is infinite in wisdom, om- 
nipotent in power, omnipresent, omnicient, immutable, eter- 
nal, holy, just, good, and true, who is, and was, and is yet to 
come. When God spake unto Moses from the burning bush, 
and commanded him to lead his people out of bondage into 
the land of promise, and Moses desired to know his name, 
he answered and said, "I Am That I Am." He then com- 
manded Moses to say unto his brethren in Egypt that "I Am 
hath sent me unto you — that he was sent by the Lord God of 
their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the 
God of Jacob : this is my name forever, and this is my memo- 
rial unto all generations." — Ex. in. 14, 15. This is the first 
time God has communicated this name to any of his people, 
as will be seen in Exodus vi. 3: "And I appeared unto Abra- 
ham, and unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God 
Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was 1 not known to 
them." When God made and confirmed his covenant with 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he was known to them by the 
name of God Almighty, but when he was about to fulfil 
that covenant, first in the deliverance of his people from 
bondage and their induction to the land of promise, and 
next to prepare the way for the advent of his Son and the 
redemption of the world, he made himself known by his 
name Jehovah. From these names we are, at least, to learn 
two things: 1. That God Almighty is the covenant-making 
and the covenant-keeping One. And, 2, that Jehovah, at 
least, signifies that he faithfully performed all his promises. 
For although he is the same immutable One, when he made 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 53 

the covenant he was known by his name God Almighty, but 
when about to fulfil what he had promised, he then, for the 
first time, made himself known by his name Jehovah. This 
I Am, who sent Moses and revealed to him his name Jeho- 
vah, wrought wonders in Egypt and at the Red Sea, gave 
manna in the wilderness and water from the rock, was a fire 
by night and a cloud of glory by day, and brought Israel into 
the land of promise, was Jesus Christ, God, afterward man- 
ifest in the flesh. For it will be seen, by reference to the 8th 
chapter and 58th verse of John's Gospel of Christ, that he 
appropriates this name to himself. By claiming to be the 
Son of God, he had offended the Jews, who boasted of their 
descent from Abraham, whom Christ said had rejoiced to see 
his day — " and he saw it and was glad. The Jews said to 
him, thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen our 
Father Abraham?" His reply is: " Before Abraham was, I 
Am." Moreover, Paul says that the Israelites tempted Christ 
in the wilderness, and were destroyed by serpents, while 
Moses says they tempted God. (See Numbers xxi. and 1 
Corinthians x.) That Paul believed Christ to be the very 
God whose mighty arm brought Israel out of Egypt and led 
them through the wilderness, is unquestionably true. Hence, 
Christ was the God Almighty of Abraham, and the I Am, or 
Jehovah, of Moses. Until the time of deliverance drew near, 
and the covenant of grace was about to be fulfilled by the 
Redeemer of the world, this new name of. God was never 
made known, but then it was revealed to Moses. That Jesus 
Christ was the very and eternal God, is not to be questioned ; 
and, although it is not my purpose to discuss the fact of his 
divinity in this place, yet I could not weil avoid calling atten- 
tion to it, and holding up this conclusive evidence. For while 
the entire hope of our race is built on Jesus Christ, and there 
is salvation in no other name, the Scriptures fully establish 
his eternal divinity, inasmuch as they unitedly testify that he 
w r as the God Almighty of Abraham, the I Am, or Jehovah, 
that appeared unto Moses, and who delivered and led Israel 
through the wilderness, and was finally manifest in the flesh, 
and declared to be the Son of God, full of grace and truth. 
John says, "And we know that the Son of God is come, and 



54 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

hath given us an understanding that we may know him that 
is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus 
Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." — 1 John v. 
20. The doctrine of the Trinity is of New Testament devel- 
opment, and was never so fully revealed until Christ came 
and taught it in person. Nevertheless, it has its foundation 
in the essential and immutable nature of God, being from 
eternity what it is now. Since Christ and his apostles taught 
it as a fact, we can now see outcroppings of the doctrine through- 
out the Old Testament scriptures. But it remained for our 
Lord and Saviour to state the fact that the Father was one, 
and himself was one, and the Holy Ghost one, and that these 
three are only one God. He^nce, the doctrine of the Trinity 
may be well and truly considered the most essential doctrine 
of the Bible, and that which underlies the whole scheme of 
salvation, and vitalizes the entire temple of truth. That this 
doctrine might be more fully impressed upon our minds, it is 
proclaimed in every administration of Christian baptism, and 
in a most peculiar sense is the true divinity of Jesus Christ 
taught in the administration of the Sacred Supper, which is 
the most solemn act of worship rendered to God by redeemed 
sinners. As the whole system of truth and plan of salvation 
rests on the doctrine of the Trinity and the essential Godhead 
of Jesus Christ, a denial of the doctrine of the Trinity and of 
the essential divinity of Christ can be taken in no other light 
than a radical error, which, in effect, would overturn the whole 
superstructure and render the gospel powerless. 

4. The Attributes of God. — Wisdom, power, and will may 
be considered together, in this place, as the most suitable 
method of imparting our thoughts. While God is incom- 
prehensible to all his creatures, he has been pleased to 
make himself known in part, as we learn from his word. 
His attributes are so many perfections or powers which he 
possesses, and has manifested to his creatures. The knowl- 
edge of God is infinite, and comprehends all things from the 
beginning to the end — all that has been, now is, or will be 
hereafter. And although there is present, past, and future to 
him, as a fact, yet, in relatton to his knowledge of things, he 
knew all in the beginning that he knows now, or ever will 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 55 

know, and to him there is nothing new. And the idea that 
he can know or not know at will, is as wild as it is inconsist- 
ent and unfounded. For it cannot be true of God that he 
exists at will, or could will himself out of existence, and it 
would be as consistent to suppose that he could will himself 
out of existence, as that he could, by will, suspend one of his 
attributes, and for the time cease to be God. God did not 
will himself to be what he is, and cannot will himself not to 
be, or to be any thing but what he is; none of his perfections 
are the creatures of will ; he is essentially what he is, and can 
be nothing more nor less. . Knowledge is an attribute, which 
must forever know without cessation, increase, or diminution 
in God. While power must forever exist in him also, but may 
not and must not necessarily work perpetually, but may, for 
a time, cease to work and still exist. The will of God is the 
attribute which moves his almighty arm and sets the wheels 
of omnipotence in motion ; he wills, and it is done. By his 
wisdom all his plans are laid, by his power all his works are 
done, and by his will he decrees all that he would have his 
hand to do. His knowledge neither wills nor works, his 
power neither wills nor knows; but he knows and plans by 
his wisdom, he determines or decrees by his will, and works 
by his powerful arm. As God knows all things, he knows 
all the evil, as well as all the good, and, while he hates the 
evil, he loves the good, which is in correlation with his nature, 
while evil is the very opposite, and he is opposed to it. Now, 
while it is true that God knows the evil as well as the good, 
will it be thought or said that he willed all — the evil as well 
as the good? Surely not. For it would be saying hard 
things of him, and things against which he himself would 
protest, that he never willed or decreed them. Things which 
are contrary to the nature of God, are, of course, contrary to 
his will; for if he is holy in his nature, his will must be so : 
consequently, to will sin would be an infraction of the immu- 
table law of his nature. Nothing which he wills can possibly 
be wrong — all must be good. Hence, the supposition that he 
has decreed all things whatsoever comes to pass, must be an 
egregious error, for the tendency of that sentiment is to break 
down all moral distinction betw r een good and evil, and make 



56 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

both equally agreeable to the divine will, for no one who has 
the least knowledge of God could be guilty of such a blunder 
as to suppose he ever could will any thing which is not agree- 
able to it. Therefore, one thing which may fitly be said here 
is that the knowledge of God and his decrees are not the same, 
nor equivalent to the same, but are as wide apart as holiness 
and sin. For, while it is admitted that God knows the evil as 
well as the good, it has been proven that he could not will 
evil, and as he could not will it, he could not decree it; and 
although he knew that it would come to pass, his will never 
was put forth to decree or to bring it to pass; and where he 
exercised no will, there could be no decree, though there was 
knowledge of what would be. Now, if it should be said that 
all things w 7 hich God foreknew would come to pass — must be 
as he knew they would — and that such is a decree in effect, or 
equivalent to a decree, then I protest against all such begging 
of the question. For when things come to pass as God fore- 
sees they will, but without his willing that they should so 
come to pass, that is no decree, nor even its shadow, for the 
very thing is wanting here without which there never was a 
decree of God, and that is his will. I am mainly concerned 
here to show T that it is one thing to know, and quite another 
and different to do that thing by will and power. All who 
have perceptive powers could see, if they would, that there 
is a very wide difference between knowing and doing. There 
is just the same wide difference between God's knowing that 
a man would rob and murder his neighbor, and decreeing or 
willing that he should, as there is between opposites. He 
knows, but he does not will it. But, as I shall have occasion 
to speak of these attributes of God in connection with another 
class, I will add no more at this time, but proceed to notice 
some of his moral attributes. 

5. God's Moral Perfections. — Holiness, justice, goodness, 
and truth being, in every essential respect, what God is, and 
developments of his moral character, must constitute the very 
essence of the moral law, and the sum total of immutable rec- 
titude. If there exists any rule or law of action with Jeho- 
vah, as there evidently does, he must possess within himself 
the law of his own actions, as well as of the actions of all 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 57 

bis intelligent creatures in the universe. Consequently, he 
can no more violate the law of his nature than he can change 
himself and cease to be infinitely perfect, or cease to be God. 
Nor can he approve of any action in his creatures which offers 
an infraction of this law ; much less could he offer such infrac- 
tion himself, by any action of his will in decrees or fore-ordi- 
nations bearing on the free actions of his creatures. The 
very idea of divine decrees necessarily involves the action of 
the divine will in the choice and determination of things. 
Hence, on the supposition that God has decreed all things 
whatsoever comes to pass, the position is fairly taken that he 
has been the first of all to offer an infraction of the divine law. 
And, moreover, it could not fail to be seen that he has acted 
contrary to and in direct violation of his moral nature, for- 
asmuch as many things which come to pass are impure, 
unholy, unjust, and sinful. And it can be no apology for 
Jehovah to say of him that he has so decreed all things, so 
as thereby is he neither the author or approver of sin : for 
all things, according to the position, begin and end with him. 
If the mind of man can conceive of a self-contradiction, this 
is certainly one of the most glaring, where the Westminster 
divines tell us " that God decreed all things whatsoever comes 
to pass, yet so as thereby is he neither the author or approver 
of sin." First, it is affirmed that he decreed all things; and, 
secondly, that he was neither the author nor did he approve 
of what he did. Here it would appear that God willed many 
things which were contrary to his moral nature, and, of course, 
the moral law was violated by the act, and he himself was not 
pleased with what he brought to pass, but disapproved of many 
things. Nothing can be true which bears such palpable marks 
of self-contradiction as are here seen ; nor can truth be found 
where God's will is necessarily brought in conflict with his 
moral perfections— holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. 
5 



58 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



LECTURE IV.— ON CREATION IN GENERAL. 



Creation is the making of all things out of nothing. 
There was a time when God existed alone. Open, universal 
space, however, had no beginning, but is eternal. It cannot 
be denominated creature nor creator, but properly nothing 
but a vacuum, having no marks of creature nor attributes of 
creator, but is the unbounded dwelling-place of God. In the 
contemplation of creation, two things are presented to the 
mind. 1. The Creator. 2. The creation. God, the Creator, 
must have essential and real being; he must be independent, 
infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his wisdom, power, jus- 
tice, holiness, goodness, and truth. He did from the begin- 
ning, does now, and eternally will hate sin ; his very nature 
is opposed to all impurity. It is impossible for him to do 
wrong in wil'l, purposes, or works; nor can he be the cause 
of any evil in all creation. God, the creator of all things, 
has wisdom to know, power to do, and will to determine what 
is best to be done; and in himself he has the rule of all he 
does, whether in purpose or acts. This rule is his nature, 
whether it be denominated love, holiness, justice, goodness, 
mercy, and truth, or all taken together, and must determine 
all his plans and acts, so that, contrary to his nature, he can 
neither will nor work. God cannot lie; he cannot do evil ; 
he is holy. That which he does at one time, he approves at 
all times; and what he hates at one time, he hates with im- 
mutable hatred, and what he hates he never willed, and what 
he never willed he never did or will do. All that he wills is 
good, and he cannot will or make it bad. Hence, all the 
changes in the universe which have been from good to bad, 
have taken place contrary to the nature and will of God, and, 
of course, by some other agency. Whatever he decrees, he 
must both will and love, and as he can neither love nor will 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 59 

moral evil, it is impossible for him to be the author of it. 2. 
Creation, positive and proper, is the making of all things of 
nothing, whether matter or mind, angels or men, principali- 
ties or powers, things visible or invisible, in heaven above 
and in the earth beneath, and all very good. Moses says, 
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." 
Then he introduces the order in which all vegetables and ani- 
mals were made, and, last of all, man, and pronounced all 
good. As to the time when all things belonging to this 
world were made, we are not prepared to say, nor does Moses 
say. He says it was done in the beginning, from which we 
earn that all the.-e things were created by almighty power. 
The material world, and also this entire solar system, may 
have been created thousands, and even millions, of years be- 
fore man was made, and so, to conclude, does not conflict with 
the Mosaic account of creation. The time when man was 
made is more definitely fixed by Moses, and established by 
the world's history and corroborated by geology. It was 4,000 
years before Christ, or 5,852 years from this time. It is said 
in one place that God created the heaven, and in another that 
he made the firmament, from which I have come to the con- 
clusion that these are one and the same, for Moses says that 
God called the firmament heaven. From what is further said 
of this firmament, it was the atmosphere, for we are informed 
that it separated the waters, and part of them were below, and 
part above the firmament. The waters below the firmament 
were called seas, but those above it were called waters. It is, 
however, said that a mist went up and watered the earth. 
From which it is manifest that the vapor caused by the sun 
ascended in the atmosphere and formed clouds, which were 
borne up by the firmament, and poured out rain to water the 
earth. 

In the creation of man, there is a clear intimation of the 
doctrine of the Trinity : "And God said, let us make man in 
our image, after our likeness." " So God created man in his 
own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and 
female created he them." God the Father, God the Son, 
and God the Holy Ghost, created all things, but this was not 
revealed until rational, accountable man was to be made: 



60 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

then God spake in the plural voice of himself, " Let us 
make man in our image, after our likeness." Man's body 
was made of dust — the dust of the earth — which indicates 
mortality. But whether it would have died or suffered any 
privation had he not sinned, is a theological question of some 
consequence. That animals died before man was made, ap- 
pears to be manifest from geological developments, but this 
sheds no light on the question under consideration, further 
than that the fall of man was not the cause of the death of 
animals. The Bible must decide this question. I shall, 
therefore, take the position that he would not have died or 
suffered any privation if he had not sinned. Death, in every 
aspect, was to man the result of sin and the penalty of the 
;law. " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, 
.and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men, for that 
all have sinned." — liom. v. 12. There is no distinction made 
Jhere between soul and body; the one is included as well as 
^the other — both suffered. The one lost the image of God, 
and the other became subject to natural death, and God said 
it should return to the earth from whence it was taken. In 
proof that it would not have died had man not sinned, I 
shall urge the fact that the bodies of all men will be resur- 
rected and live again in weal or woe, never to die again — 
they shall exist forever. This shows that it was the design 
of God that they should never die. Moreover, the body of 
the Son of God would not have died by any thing inhereut 
in it; all his sufferings and death were in consequence of our 
sins, which he bore in expiating our guilt. And although 
he died, his body suffered no corruption, but rose again and 
ascended into heaven, to die no more. The bodies of Enoch 
and Elijah did not die, for they were taken to heaven, both 
soul and body. This proves, to my mind, that if grace so 
sanctified their bodies as to free them from death, man 
would never have died, had he continued in his original rec- 
titude; and whatever changes he might have undergone, 
there would have been nothing like death in it all. It must 
not be thought of one made in the image of God, that he 
needed any change in the way of purity, nor that it was in- 
competent for his almighty power to make that immortal 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 61 

which was formed of earth. All, then, that man, in his 
original rectitude, wanted, was confirmation, which would 
have been given him at the termination of his trial, and then 
he would have been as deathless as Enoch and Elijah now 
are. I will now speak of the creation of the soul. The 
style of Moses, in reference to the soul, is peculiar. "And 
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became 
a living soul." This phraseology does not, by remote infer- 
ence, convey the idea that man's soul was a part of God, but 
it surely does indicate his superiority over all this world, as 
well as the immortality of the soul in the highest sense. 
" Man became a living soul." The soul was created by the 
breath of the Almighty — by omnipotence, and in his like- 
ness — it was holy, and could not be otherwise, when he 
made it. Whether he made all other souls at the same time, 
or whether he continues to create, or whether, by his arrange- 
ment, they are produced by ordinary generation, is what we 
do not know. But this we know: that in whatever way they 
may be brought into being, they are created by Jehovah. 

I am mostlj- inclined to the opinion that they are produced 
by ordinary generation, as this appears to be the least liable 
to objections. But as the Bible is silent on this subject, I 
will say no more, only that God cannot be the author of un- 
holy beings, except as he is the creator of Adam, who, con- 
trary to his will, sinned, and fell, and became unholy: and 
for as much as he designed and formed him to have a pos- 
terity, he did not prevent it by the interposition of almighty 
power, but suffered it to go on, in the case of both souls and 
bodies and in the same sense that he is the author of the 
polluted bodies of Adam's posterity, he is the author of their 
souls. Nothing, whether matter or mind, coming directly 
from the creative hand of God, can be impure; but if he 
formed the first man pure and hoi} 7 , with the germ of a nu- 
merous posterity in him, though he fell, and the source be- 
came impure, the streams are suffered to flow, while it is not 
true that almighty power is immediately and constantly ex- 
erted in creating. That all the race has descended from one 
man, agrees fully with the Mosaic account of the creation 



62 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

and fall of Adam. For, in all countries and ages, they are 
found to bear his likeness in a moral sense, notwithstanding 
the great diversity in other respects — with regard to lan- 
guage, color, and religion ; they are all haters of God and 
one another by nature. These marks of identity are incon- 
trovertible, and agree with Adam, the progenitor, as the face 
of a man in a glass does with the face itself. The moral pic- 
ture drawn of man in the Bible is demonstrated by the his- 
tory of the world, and the streams may be traced back to 
the fountain. Angels were also created by the Almighty. 

"We learn, from the sacred scriptures, that this part of cre- 
ation consisted of spiritual, intellectual, moral beings of dif- 
ferent capacities, called angels, ministering spirits, sons of 
God, morning stars, principalities, and powers, and consti- 
tuted part of the great moral empire of Jehovah. Angels 
appeared to Abraham and informed him of the design of 
God to overthrow Sodom and Gomorrah ; an angel appeared 
to Zachariah before the birth of John the Baptist, and to 
Mary, the mother of Christ, and to the shepherds on the 
night when Christ was born, and when he proclaimed unto 
them the glad tidings of salvation, immediately there was 
with him a multitude of the heavenly host (angels) praising 
God : their theme was glory to God in the highest, on earth 
peace, good-will toward men. Angels are ministering spirits 
sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation : 
they rejoice over sinners that repent, they conducted Lazarus 
to Abraham's bosom, and will gather the saints into the city 
of God when Christ shall come the second time with power 
and great glory. Angels will also be judged in the great 
day; they are subjects of God's moral government, and, be- 
ing created by him, were most likely brought into being un- 
der the same perfect law, though the test of their obedience 
may have been different from that which was given to Adam. 
That they were placed under trial is fully evinced from the 
fact that some of them kept not their first estate, but sinned 
and fell, and are reserved in chains, under darkness, unto the 
great day, to be ^punished. — 2 Peter n. 4, Jude 6. All cre- 
ated beings, who are accountable and proper subjects of re- 
wards and punishments, must be under the righteous law of 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 63 

God, and have a fair trial and well-defined test of obedience 
before confirmation; confirmation cannot be given without 
it, and before its consummation, nor will it be withheld or 
delayed, when it is completed. That the angels were not 
confirmed without trial, as accountable agents, is demon- 
strated from the fact that some of them kept not their first 
estate, but sinned and fell. Others did keep their first estate, 
and were confirmed in their original rectitude forever, and 
will never fall. Angels who kept their first estate were as 
holy when first created as now, and were not made more pure 
after confirmation, but were confirmed in that estate when 
the trial ended. The test of man's obedience was, doubtless, 
also the condition of confirmation in his case; this was not 
many things, but one well-defined prohibition, and on that 
all was suspended. The test of obedience with angels was, 
in all probability, one single thing, well-defined, and also the 
condition of their confirmation. Such of them as kept their 
first estate were confirmed, but such as sinned were cast down 
to hell; they are reserved in everlasting chains, under dark- 
ness, unto the great day, from which it appears that there was 
no remedial system for their recovery. 

The representative arrangement, as made in the case of 
man, could not have been introduced in that of angels, for 
when our federal head and representative sinned and fell, we 
all fell in him; but not so with angels — each one, it appears, 
represented himself, and stood the test for himself, and whether 
confirmed in uprightness, or sealed to endless perdition, his acts 
had no bearing upon others. We may, therefore, learn, from 
these facts, that all intellectual, moral beings are agents, free 
and uncoerced by the Almighty — angels as well as men; and 
the time of trial does not appear to have been made up of any 
number of days or definite time in either case. It could not 
have extended throughout Adam's life-time, for it is plain 
there were no limits to it at the time the test was given him. 
Consequently, if the trial had been during his life-time, it 
could never have come to an end in any way. And to limit 
it to the end of his life after the fall is not true, for his first 
trial ended in his ruin long before the termination of his nat- 
ural life; and I conclude that it might, under the same laws 



64 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

and regulations, have terminated in his confirmation, without 
any regard to the length of his life. Nothing, therefore, can 
be more reasonable than the conclusion that his second trial, 
which was under the gracious provisions of the gospel, might 
close forever, in the confirmation of his soul and a title to 
heaven, before death. The time designated by Him who gave 
him trial was: "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
die." This directs our minds to one point, which is the test and 
turning point; for, in all cases, that which is the test of obe- 
dience is the condition of confirmation. Angels, on trial, 
could not be continued during their life-time, or it would not 
have closed up to this time, for it does not appear that they 
had bodies like ours, to die like ours. The Scriptures, how- 
ever, clearly indicate that they were either confirmed in their 
first estate in a short time, or lost it and sunk to perdition. 
As to the time when God created angels, we are not informed. 
I am, however, satisfied that it was before man was made, and 
even before he put forth his omnipotent power in the creation 
of this world, either in matter or form, and that angels, though 
ministering spirits to this world, are no part of it, and are not 
included in the six days' work. When Moses says that God 
made all things in six days, he is speaking of this world and 
this system of worlds, but not of all other worlds, beings, and 
things in the universe. Those messengers of Jehovah, who 
go in swift obedience to do his will, may have been created 
countless millions of years before this world. God says to 
Job : " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the 
earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding, who hath laid 
the measures thereof, if thou knowest, or who hath stretched 
the line upon it. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fas- 
tened? or who laid the corner-stone thereof, when the morn- 
ing stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for 
joy?" — Job xxxvin. 4-7. Those morning stars and sons of 
God sang together and all his sons shouted for joy when he 
laid the foundations of the earth, and it may be that the same 
tall, glorified choristers shouted for joy when the Saviour was 
born and praised God in the highest. Where the angels were 
when they were created and placed on trial, is not for us to 
know, nor is it necessary. But we know, by revelation, that 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 65 

they had trial some where, and that some of them fell. 
Among the number, Satan is mentioned, who tempted our 
first parents, and also the Son of God; he is called the father 
of lies. From which it may be inferred that he is the first 
angel that ever fell in the moral empire of God, and that his 
first sin may have been a departure from the truth. All fallen 
angels are called liars and devils. But Satan is the first devil 
and the first liar, and, as he tempted our first parents with a 
lie in his mouth, and our Saviour, also, by setting up a false 
claim to the kingdoms of this world, it may be that this was 
his first sin. Whether this is true or not, certainly no one sin 
has ever done more mischief, and truly none can be darker. 
I have taken this course, in this lecture, for the purpose of 
impressing upon the mind of the reader the character of the 
Creator, and that of all his works. And let it be remembered, 
that a being so perfect could but make all things and beings 
good after their kind. And that he who made all good, at 
first, cannot destroy the glory of his own hand, much less 
could he, by an exercise of his sovereign will, blot his own 
image from either men or angels, irrespective of their own 
agency. 

In this place, it is not my purpose to say any thing touch- 
ing the decrees of God — this will be noticed in another place ; 
only I wish to impress it upon the mind that the Creator of 
all things has the rule and high standard of all he does in his 
own perfect and immutable nature, which is impressed by be- 
ing imprinted upon all the works of his hand. God was 
pleased with the works of his hands, and pronounced them 
all very good. Solomon says: " Lo, this only have I found, 
that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out 
many inventions." — Ec. vn. 29. The purity and righteous- 
ness of the Almighty, as it is fully set forth in his Word, does 
not admit of any speculations in relation to his will or works ; 
nothing but purity could fall from his hand, and certainly 
nothing contrary to his will. And whatever may be the tur- 
pitude of man, and the depths of ruin into which he has fallen, 
or the cause that led to it, we are fully assured of his prim- 
itive purity and rectitude, and his fall and ruin opposed to his 
Maker's will, and altogether by man himself. While it is 



56 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

true that the teachers of religion differed in many respects, it 
is no less true that they all agree that God, who is holy, is 
not and cannot be the author of unholiness. And, although 
they differ widely as to God's decrees, they all agree that his 
works must all be pure and good, because he is holy. Hence, 
all sober, cautious divines, seeing that a change has taken 
place in our world since God first made man, and that this 
change has been brought about by either God or man, are 
equally ready to admit that this change was the result of a 
violation of the will of God so manifestly exercised in the 
creation of man. The solution of this difficult subject has 
conducted some divines to a distinction between revealed and 
secret decrees. But it would be very hazardous to venture 
upon the interpretation of the secret things of God, other 
than we are guided by his revealed will and word. A pru- 
dent interpretation of the nature and character of God will 
always lead men to understand that the will and decrees of 
God are not antagonistic, but flow out from the same holy 
source, and in the same channel, and are impressed upon the 
works of his hand. Consequently, enlightened minds, freed 
from temerity, never search for the origin of evil in the Holy 
One any more than they do for that of goodness in the father 
of lies. God willed good, and not evil, and the purity of his 
will was impressed upon the works of his hands, and all was 
very good. The holiness of God, if I may so speak, is the 
law of his nature, and the immutable law of his will, decrees, 
and works; and creatures made by the energy of these must 
be good, and conformity to these is their highest perfection 
and best obedience ; and sin cannot be found in the empire 
of Jehovah where these have not been opposed and volunta- 
rily infracted. It is a vain thing to attempt to interpret the 
secret will of God as being, in any respect, contrary to his 
revealed will, when his revealed will and works are our only 
index and polar star to the interpretation of what he has not 
revealed, and beyond this we can know nothing. 



SECTION II 



LECTURE V.— THE MORAL LAW— PERFECT 
AND IMMUTABLE. 

This law is so denominated because it not only directs all 
created beings in their duty and obligations to each other, 
but, also, in their duty and obligations to the Creator, and is 
at once the high standard of all perfection. Psalm cxix. 96: 
"I have seen an end of all perfection : but thy commandment 
is exceeding broad." "Wherefore the law is holy; and the 
commandment holy, and just, and good." — Rom. vn. 12. 
This law was, and is, and will eternally be perfect. The 
Psalmist says, " I have seen an end of all perfection : but thy 
commandment is exceeding broad," from which we may 
learn that it had no beginning, will have no end, and under- 
goes no change, but remains immutably the same forever. 
To that which is so perfect nothing could be added to make 
it better, and from it nothing ought to be taken to render it 
less perfect. To Moses God revealed it, or gave an exposition 
of it on Mt. Sinai, in ten precepts or commandments, teaching 
man his duty to his fellow-man, and all men their duty to 
God. But our Saviour in after ages presented it in a more 
comprehensive manner, and demonstrated its spirituality and 
claims upon the heart, the soul of man, showing at once that 
its fulfilment consists in love to God and love to man. The 
very nature of the moral law is love, and upon this principle 
we see that all the law and the prophets were predicated. 
John says that God is love, and Christ says that the law is 
fulfilled by love. It must therefore be very manifest that this 
law had its origin in God — in his inimitable perfections — and 
(67) 



68 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

must be infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, as are all his 
perfections. It was not the result of legislation or creative 
power but an eternal existence. God, in revealing this law, 
gave a declaration of his nature and will to man as a rule of 
action in all things. Other laws coming from God, and which 
were enacted by him, had their beginning, and may have an 
end at the will of the legislator, but could not be parts and 
parcels of the moral law, yet may all be enforced by it. The 
positive precept given to our first parents, when under trial, 
was so founded upon the moral law as to place them under 
its awful curse as soon as they transgressed it. But neither 
themselves nor their posterity have since that been under 
the same prohibition. That precept ended, bat the moral law 
having cognizance of them held them under its curse. The 
ceremonial law designed to direct and regulate the Jewish 
service, and to direct the worshipers by types to Christ, had 
its beginning and eud. It was expedient and right for a 
time, but ceased to be so at the offering up of Christ for the 
sin of the world. This, too, was founded upon the moral law 
which gave it all its sanction and force. The Jewish law, 
designed for the government of the Jews as a nation, was also 
founded upon the moral law, and connected with the ceremo- 
nial in many respects, but ceased in that form with the 
overthrow of the Jewish polity. But the perfect law of love 
continues the same forever, and extends into all worlds and 
binds all created intelligences to love God. As there can be 
no obedience without love, so there can be no felicity without 
the nature of the law in the heart. Love is the fulfilment of 
the law, and also constitutes the qualification for heaven. By 
this law all men will be judged, and by it all were created. 
Man, therefore, was holy — the image of God was impressed 
upon him in creation. And as he was created holy at first 
like the law, his change by divine grace and the restoration 
of the nature of the law to his heart is rightly denominated 
a new creation, and the creative power is the same in both 
cases. The gospel remedy for sin is such as the law requires, 
and the change wrought by it such as the law approves. 
The law is perfect, the remedy is perfect, and the change is 
no less perfect — it raises the subject up to the purity of the law. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 69 

This law is said to be a transcript of the perfections of God. 
This, however, can only be true of the written law which was 
given to Moses upon the two tables ; but not of first principles, 
or the original whence the transcript was taken. The 
transcript had a beginning; but the original was eternal, and 
is as immutable as God. God and his law are not the same; 
yet the law was with him and in him from eternity, and 
turns every way to guard and defend the rights of his throne. 
Mutable beings may violate it; but the immutable and holy 
One cannot — he cannot act contrary to, or in opposition to 
his nature. He is holy; so is his law. "The law is holy; 
and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Conse- 
quently his nature is the law or rule of all his works and acts, 
which must all be very good. He can have no will to do evil 
himself, and none that his creatures should sin. No one can 
have a correct knowledge of the plan of salvation, whose 
knowledge of the law is deficient. Erroneous views of the 
divine law is the great inlet of nearly all the heresy which 
has misled and cursed mankind. A correct knowledge of 
God leads the mind to a correct understanding of his law ; 
and a correct understanding of the law is of vast importance 
in arriving at a correct knowledge of the character of Christ 
— the atonement, the foundation of justification, regenera- 
tion, of pure vital religion, Christian confirmation, and of 
the future felicity of saints, and the misery of sinners. The 
perfection of the law shows at once the necessity of holiness 
in man — of a perfect justifying righteousness, and of the 
eternal divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ who atoned for our 
sins. Those who deny the true and essential divinity of the 
Son of God, and his real and full atonement for sin, his perfect 
justifying righteousness, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, 
are always found deficient in their knowledge of the law. 
This is also the fatal error of all Universalians, who mangle 
the truth of God, and blot out all moral distinction and 
contend for the happiness of all, irrespective of holiness. 
Moralists are wont to bring down the high standard of 
perfection and adapt it to the depraved, proud, and imbecile 
creature — man — that he may crawl into heaven independent of 
the Son of God. The moral law, with all its purity, would 



70 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

not be adapted to the government of the world without a 
penal sanction. As the penalty is lessened, the law is weak- 
ened ; destroy the penalty, and the law is in effect abolished. 
This being true, penalty is essential to the very existence of 
law; and without it law has no force. The nature and extent 
of the penalty must be graduated by the nature and extent of 
the law. By the law is the knowledge of sin and its awful 
wages. If there had been no penalty annexed to the law, 
man might nevertheless have failed in obedience; but could 
have incurred no displeasure or curse. The law being eternal, 
the penalty must be so in its bearing, and will never end of 
itself. There aru, therefore, only two ways in which it could 
be removed: One is to abrogate the law; and the other is to 
satisfy its demands. The latter has been Jehovah's plan in 
maintaining his authority and the rights of his throne, as the 
other would have been the yielding up of his divine authority 
over his creatures, and the destruction of all order and justice 
in the universe among his moral subjects. The penalty once 
met, continues while the law remains to be a full and complete 
satisfaction forever, and is at once the righteous ground of 
justification to all who receive it — never to be changed. But 
those who reject it must not only bear the penalty while the 
law continues, but the augmented guilt of rejecting Christ 
and his great salvation, which being received would have 
saved them forever. Moreover, the law could neither be 
changed nor abrogated ; for God is unchangeable, and the law 
is like him, being founded in his moral perfections — it must 
remain the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. " This law 
is spiritual," and discerns the thoughts and intents of the 
hearts of all ; consequently religion in its purity and power 
must be spiritual like the law — the remedy provided in view 
of law was designed to bring sinners up to the law, to implant 
within them the nature and spirituality of the law, and to 
impress upon them the image of God, that they may delight 
in the law after the inner man. Paul delighted in the law, 
and so did David. It was sweeter to his heart than honey to 
the taste ; he loved it as he loved God, having its nature 
restored to his heart. We can well understand the plan of 
salvation when we have a correct knowledge of the law ; for 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 71 

it is an expedient to bring us up to the law. And we can 
also understand the first principles of religion in the heart — 
it is love in the heart to God and our brethren. God is a 
unit; his law is a unit; the plan of salvation is a unit; relig- 
ion is a unit; and the Church is a unit, and all this is love: 
for God is love; his law is love; the plan of salvation is love; 
religion is love, and so is the Church, for it can have no 
existence without it. The beginning and the end of the law 
is love, and this is the Alpha and Omega of our holy religion. 
The written law is local in its circulation, but the unwritten 
law is universal in its bearing — it exists wherever God exists. 
The former was given to the Jews, and measurably confined 
to that nation; but the unwritten law was impressed by the 
Spirit of God upon the hearts of all, both Jews and Gentiles. 
Paul says, Rom. n. 14, 15, " For when the Gentiles, which 
have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the 
law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves: 
which shew the works of the law written in their hearts, their 
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean- 
while accusing, or else excusing one another." This shows 
that while all may not have the law as it was written upon 
the tables of stone and given to the Jews, that the same 
identical law was written upon the hearts of all men. This 
scripture, moreover, shows us what the law ot nature is — it is 
the moral law, written upon the hearts of all men, and when 
they do by nature the things contained in the written law, we 
are told that it is because the law is written in their hearts, 
and their conscience either condemns or acquits, while their 
thoughts bear witness to their knowledge of right and wrong. 
We may learn from this that the gospel remedy extends to 
all, for it is to this world co-extensive with the law. " For 
where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound, that 
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, 
through righteousness, unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ, 
our Lord." Then Paul says, " For what the law could not do, 
in that it was weak, through the flesh, God, sending his own 
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin 
in the flesh : that the righteousness of the law might be 
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the 



72 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Spirit."— Rom. vm. 3, 4. " The law of the spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus makes us free from the law of sin and death." 
We are freed from the dominion of sin by the Spirit, through 
the righteousness of Christ, while at the same time the nature 
of the moral law is restored to our hearts, and acted out in 
our lives through the Spirit. When we are judged in the day 
of Jesus Christ, by the moral law, we shall be found upon the 
everlasting rock, having on the righteousness of the law and 
its nature in us (which is perfect love). It must be evident 
that the entire race of man is under the moral law, for the 
Jews had it written, and the Gentiles had it in their hearts — 
written not with pen and ink, but by the Spirit of the living 
God. The difference, therefore, between the Jews and Gen- 
tiles is this : The Jews had it written on tables of stone, and 
also in their hearts; while the Gentiles had it written in their 
hearts only. But it was the same law. This law has been 
denominated the law of nature. We, however, see that it was 
not the law of nature, but the moral law — the same which the 
Jews had. Strictly speaking, there is no such law given to 
moral agents for their government as the law of nature. The 
law by which God will judge the world, both Jews and Gen- 
tiles, is one and the same. All were under its curse as sinners, 
and all were redeemed from its curse by Christ. There is no 
law by which either Jews or Gentiles can be saved — salvation 
is by grace, and not by the works of any law whatever. 
Wherever mankind are spoken of as fallen and condemned, 
all are represented as condemned by one and the same law. 
And where Christ is spoken of as making satisfaction for sin, 
it was to the same law. The law of nature is nothing but 
nature itself, and no rule of obedience for man ; it neither 
enjoins it upon him to love God, or man — and grants no 
favors, nor does it inflict curses. There is but one universal 
law, and all men are under it, and bound by it to love God 
and one another. All, therefore, must have some knowledge 
of it in some way, and to some extent, either by the spiritu- 
ality of the law itself, or by the teachings or influence of the 
Holy Spirit, through the medium of that satisfaction rendered 
to the law by Jesus Christ for all. Now, as all will be judged 
by this law, it is certain they must be convinced of the law. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 73 

Therefore, the Spirit reproves all of sin, of righteousness, and 
of judgment. Hence the Judge will decide the destiny of 
all according to the law and the remedy for sin, which fully 
met its claims. "In the day (says Paul,) when God shall 
judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my 
gospel." — Rom. n. 16. As all are under the moral law, which 
had its origin in God — whatever special or positive precepts 
he might think proper to give to any of his creatures, must 
be so connected with it as that a violation thereof must involve 
the offender, and subject him to the curse of the moral law. 
This was true of Adam. The command given him has both 
the positive and negative form, to make it the more impressive 
to his mind. But while it is true that a violation of the posi- 
tive law would have subjected him to its penalty, this would 
not have rendered him obnoxious to the curse of the mora] 
law, had there been no connection between them, and he been 
under the one as well as the other. All the laws of God must 
originate in his own inimitable perfections, as one great 
source of righteousness; and the infraction of one must, as a 
matter of course, be a violation of the whole law, being a 
transgression of the first great principle. As God is universal 
King and Lord of all, his law, or laws, must extend over all. 
For if there were any part of his dominions without law, he 
could require no obedience of that part of his dominion, nor 
could disloyalty exist there, or judgment extend there; "for 
where there is no law, there is no transgression." Why so 
many ages passed away before the written law was given to 
mankind, is what we do not claim to know, any more than 
we know why so many of the race are destitute of it to this 
day. But we are certain that if it could be made appear 
that there is any part of Jehovah's dominions without law, 
the same is irresponsible. And upon the same principle, if 
there should be any part of his empire totally ignorant of his 
requirements where his law does exist, that part could no 
more be responsible than if there were none. It is, therefore, 
safe to conclude that God can as well give to his accountable 
creatures a knowledge of law as of his own being, and that 
he has done so, and that the knowledge of the one is co- 
extensive with the other, and of equal clearness. Wherever we 
5 



74 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

find evidence in the Word of God to authenticate his own 
being, there we have proof of his law, and doubtless by the 
same agency and through the same medium of communica- 
tion. Whether that medium be intuitive perception, or 
instinct, it is not important; that fact does exist, that God 
has made known to the race of man in all ages his own exist- 
ence, and more or less of his claims upon his creatures. 
Mankind, in all countries and in all ages, having some con- 
ceptions of the great Creator, have had some conceptions of 
his requirements, and as their conceptions of the Law-giver 
have been more or less perfect, such has been their appre- 
hension of his law. Consequently, if there be any portion of 
the race that have no knowledge of the divine law, that same 
portion can have no idea of the being of God ; for these truths 
are parallel and of equal importance to man. No one, there- 
fore, who admits the being of God, will question his 
competence to make himself known, or to impart to his 
creatures some knowledge of his will — the finger that wrote 
the law upon the tables of stone, is full competent to write it 
upon the table of man's heart. Paul, as has already been 
noticed, affirms that God has given to all men some knowl- 
edge of his being and law ; and while it is more than intimated 
that God speaks to us through the medium of his works and 
providence, his language in relation to the law is peculiarly 
emphatic. He speaks of it as having been written upon the 
hearts of at least all that have not the written law. That the 
force of his language in this respect may be more fully com- 
prehended, we have only to refer to 2 Cor., in. where 
he speaks of regeneration, using the same forcible language 
as in reference to the law, evidently showing that the same 
agent which writes in the one case writes in the other, and 
that we have as deep an impression made in our hearts by the 
writer of the divine law as the regenerate have of their 
acceptance with God. He says in reference to regeneration, 
u Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle 
of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the 
Spirit of the living God, not in table of stoue but in fleshy 
tables of the heart." The same apostle in speaking of the 
knowledge which the Gentiles have of the law, says it was 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 75 

written in their hearts. The writer in both cases is the Spirit 
of the living God, and the writing is equally intelligible. 
Whatever man may know of God and his law by intuition, 
it does nevertheless appear from the emphatic language of 
inspiration that the Holy Spirit imprints upon the hearts of 
all men some knowledge of the moral law. This view of the 
subject appears to agree best with God and his government 
over man, as knowledge and responsibility are inseparably 
connected in the divine administration. It is by no means 
certain that man, by the fall, lost all knowledge of God and 
the law, for even devils appear to retain this in some good 
degree ; and were this knowledge obliterated from the minds 
of fallen angels and wicked men, their consciousness of guilt 
and consequent misery must at once cease, which no Christian 
believes. In conformity with Scripture and reason, it may be 
safely contended that no degrees of depravity ever blot from 
the mind of accountable creatures either the knowledge of 
God or his law — it continues while mind endures. This being 
true, it does appear that something more than a bare knowl- 
edge of the law is meant by Paul, where he speaks of the 
Gentiles which have not the written law, as having it written 
in their hearts. Consequently I have concluded that he is 
correctly understood and interpreted, when understood to 
teach a divine illumination of the Spirit, given to the world 
in a way of mercy. 

In point of duration, as it (the law) had no beginning, it 
will have no end : it is, and was, and eternally will be right. 
There is nothing too high, or too low in the moral universe 
for its grasp; it extends to all accountable creatures, and 
takes cognizance of all actions, whether of heart or life, and 
approves the good and condemns the evil. There is nothing 
which it condemns that is not opposed to the high interests 
of the empire of Jehovah, as well as it is detrimental to the 
chief good of the sinner himself. It is at once the most 
perfect and laconic of all laws, and yet it extends to all possi- 
ble cases of moral action. The measure of its purity is 
exceedingly broad. Its design and tendency is to promote 
virtue and happiness, and to discourage and destroy vice. 
And by it God rules the moral universe, and defends the 



76 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

rights of his eternal throne — it is love to God and love to 
man. Suffice it to say in this place, that it had no beginning, 
and it will have no end. By it man was created at first, and 
held responsible; under its curse he fell; and under the same 
perfect law the Mediator undertook for us the work of 
redemption, and made the atonement, and the righteousness 
which he wrought out being made ours in his own appointed 
way, is our justifying righteousness, and the new creation in 
the heart by the Spirit restores the image of God as it was in 
the beginning through the grace of Christ, and restores the 
nature of the law to the heart (which is love,) with a title to 
eternal life. 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 77 



LECTURE VI.— THE FALL AND DEPRAVITY 

OF MAN. 



We begin this investigation with two facts before us — 
1st, That man was created good — the image of God was 
impressed upon him. And, 2nd, There is a change in him — 
he is not now as he was when be came from the creative hand. 
These we shall take as incontrovertible facts at the outset. 
Seeing, then, that man was at least a pure being in the day 
that God made him, how are we to account for his present 
condition? Was there anything in him which necessitated 
the change and super-induced the fall? This could not be, 
for in that case he could not be righteously condemned. 
Necessity, whether natural or moral, differs but little from 
fate, and leaves no alternative — there can be but one course. 
The laws of nature necessitate all things in nature, and the 
consequence is there can be no violation. All things act pre- 
cisely as they are moved by nature's laws, and all is right. 
The only way known to change the motion of things in nature, 
is to alter the laws which act as a power behind the throne. 
If we reason in relation to morals as we do in relation to 
nature, and attempt to account for the introduction of moral 
evil as the effect of a necessitating cause, as we do in relation 
to nature, we shall certainly commit a gross blunder. For in 
that event moral beings would be cleared of blame, and God 
would appear to be the author of sin, as he would be the 
necessitating cause. We see then that nature with its stern 
laws must be placed under our feet, and our thoughts must 
rise to a higher region, where the laws and the created intel- 
ligences to be governed by them are of the supernatural order. 
It is not unlikely that much of the confusion which often 
appears in theological works is drawn from nature, or from 
the scheme of cause and effect. In searching for the cause of 
man's fall we are not allowed to find it in God, nor in the 



78 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

moral quality of man's nature, for the Holy One could not 
will it, nor could he have created man with any quality of 
nature in him which has any affinity with sin — his nature was 
the very opposite of sin. Bushnell says, " Sin is the acting of 
a free being as he was not made to act; for, if it were the 
acting of a being under laws of cause and effect established 
by God, then it would be no sin." Those who have chained 
their thoughts and reasoning powers to the analogy of nature, 
and have reasoned from effect to cause, have never been able 
to give any rational account of the introduction of moral evil, 
for they would not presume to ascribe it to God, and if it were 
charged upon man it would be unlike his moral nature and 
totally against what it was made at first. Here we are to 
leave the scheme of cause and effect as we find it in nature, 
and take hold of that which rises higher in the scale of beings 
and things. Then it will be seen of man that he acted out 
not nature when he sinned, but his action was contrary to 
nature and a violation of it, as well as of the nature of God 
and his law. This is a fact not to be controverted, for man 
was neither a sinner, nor was the nature of sin in him before 
he acted under the full weight of responsibility. It is there- 
fore true that his pollution of soul followed as an effect of a 
wrong act. So far, then, from pollution being the cause of sin, 
sin or a wrong act was the cause of pollution. Man was 
certainly pure, bearing the likeness of God, when he first 
sinned. 

Such was the peculiar freedom of soul with which God had 
endowed man, that he could and did act against his pure 
nature. His soul in its first motions and impulses loved the 
Creator and the ways of righteousness. But soon we find him 
a sinner, fallen, and filled with conscious guilt. We search 
but in vain to find a moral quality of nature in him which 
loved sin or disobedience, or that co-related with evil. Then 
and there we give up what is sometimes denominated the 
motive scheme, and conclude that the problem of man's fall 
is to be solved in some other way. See, the effect was sin — 
this is a fact ; but the cause was a pure soul — she acted wrong. 
"Sin is the transgression of the law." Back of this wrong 
action of soul man was pure — God declares that fact — but 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 79 

after the action and by it he became a polluted sinner. This 
astounding fact staggers our philosophy; there is nothing 
like it in all the wide range of nature. Nature's laws all 
operate with certainty, and like produces like. But in Eden 
a strange thing has occurred : one like God has, by his own 
volition, become a polluted sinner. In this case like has not 
produced like, but something totally different from itself. In 
this we see the true freedom of the soul, and her true responsi- 
bility. There is no power behind the throne, or necessitating 
nature in this case whatever. This whole transaction is super- 
natural. Those who deny the freedom of the soul in her 
volitions and choices, and scorn to admit that she has any 
determining power in and of herself, may grapple with this 
fact as best they can. 

We find after all, a power acting, not under the power of 
God and by his agency, nor under the influence of a corrupt 
nature ; but contrary to God and in opposition to itself. This 
is all contrary to the opinions of naturalizing theologians, 
whose thoughts run in the channel of cause and effect. Pres- 
ident Edwards holds that the will of man is governed by the 
strangest motive — indeed he says " that the will is as the 
greatest apparent good." According to his notion there is a 
power outside of the soul that determines her choice, or there 
is a power in the soul's affections, placed there not by man, 
but of course by the Lord — which determines the will with as 
much precision as the laws of nature govern the planets. But 
then to find that determining power is what costs so much 
effort, and finally ends in a failure. For God, we are told, 
is not the author of sin, nor yet was the soul influenced in 
her choice by indwelling corruption. Then we ask, Where 
was the determining power, and what was it? The answer 
is, It was the strongest motive. We may, however, ask, Was 
the motive good and the soul pure? How, then, could the 
choice of it be evil ? Or, if the motive was impure, how could 
a pure and good soul choose it ? When the true light shines 
on this motive scheme we find it to be this, that man was 
necessitated to sin by a law of his nature given him by the 
Almighty, which was as absolute as fate. 

At this point we turn away from the motive scheme to find 



80 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

the truth elsewhere if we can. At this shift we reject all 
absolute decrees and fates of every kind, as having any influ- 
ence on the choice of man's soul, as this would embarrass the 
whole matter and dishonor God. God, we believe, could 
make a being — and did make one when he made man — with 
just such freedom of soul that he could determine in himself, 
and whose choice was independent of all other powers and 
agencies in the universe. And being pure at the time he 
sinned, his action was contrary to his own moral endowments, 
and also opposed to the pure nature of God and an infraction 
of his will and law. Man was a power, a free acting power, 
and his true freedom and responsibility consists in his not 
being necessitated by anything, either by his own moral 
nature within him, or any power or thing without him. All 
necessitating causes and powers of every kind are inconsist- 
ent with agency ; and responsibility ends where necessity 
begins. The necessitating cause, whatever it -may be, takes 
the real responsible station, and at the very point where it 
begins, responsibility is changed from the creature to the 
necessitating cause. If Mr. Edwards be right in his view, 
there can be no responsibility in the universe unless it be 
with God himself; for man cannot be such. That power, 
therefore, was wonderfully made that could sin with an inde- 
pendent freedom of choice, while as yet it was pure and good 
as God pronounced it — and such was man in his primitive 
state. In the first sinful act coloring was given to man's 
moral nature totally different from what it was before; he 
became depraved as the effect. We trace depravity back to 
his wrong volition, but no further. It stops there, and never 
enters into the acting power until after the action. This view 
sustains the Divine character and exonerates him from the 
authorship of sin, and also maintains the true position of man 
in the divine government and his real responsibility. Deprav- 
ity will next be noticed. 

Depravity is a moral quality — it signifies pollution. The 
difference between depravity and sin is wide: the latter 
signifies action, transgression, an active infraction of law; the 
other is a stain, moral turpitude, pollution. Depravity can 
only exist in moral beings; yet it has no constituent of agency 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 81 

in it. Wherever it exists in moral beings it has an evil 
tendency on their actions ; but of itself does not act only as 
an influence. Man by his sinful act became depraved — totally 
depraved — " there is no soundness in him ; " " the whole head 
is sick and the heart faint." The first man sinned in his own 
person and became depraved and felt conscious guilt. But 
conscious guilt is not the necessary and certain result of 
depravity; beings may be depraved and feel no conscious 
guilt. Adam's infant posterity are depraved, but not person- 
ally guilty of sin. They never feel any conscious guilt on the 
account of Adam's sin — never until they exercise their own 
proper agency. The exercise of our own free choice, of 
which we feel conscious of having, is such that no one can 
feel conscious guilt who has never exercised it. 

Infants, though depraved, are not personally guilty. They 
are not sinners in any true sense of the term, and never can 
feel any remorse for the sin of their fathers. There is, there- 
fore, a real and wide distinction between sin and depravity, 
just as wide as the difference between agency and no agency, 
responsibility and irresponsibility. Adam sinned and became 
depraved, and being depraved all who have descended from 
him are depraved — "there is none good, no, not one." The 
children of depraved Adam inherit his corrupt nature, but 
not his personal guilt and remorse. It is, therefore, just and 
right to state here that his sin was in no true and proper 
sense imputed to his unborn posterity, nor to his born poster- 
ity. Their nature being impure they are not lit for heaven, 
nor can they enter there until washed and sanctified by the 
grace of God; this we conceive to be the true condition of all 
infants. It may be said that Adam's posterity sinned in him 
and fell ; but we have seen in what sense they sinned— they 
inherit corruption from him without remorse of conscience. 

It may be right and in place to notice here what influence 
the sin of Adam had on himself and posterity in relation to 
natural death. Natural death had some cause some where, 
and it has been in the world ever since man sinned and fell. 
This is a fact that needs no proof. Speculative theology may 
contend that animals died before man was made, that their 
fossiliferous remains are found in rocks, having been deposited 



82 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

there long before man was made. This may all be admitted 
as true, and it will not be controverted here. But these are 
all of a lower order of beings — they are animals and not 
rational, responsible beings. Animals might have died if 
man had never sinned. But still the question comes up with 
as much propriety as if this were not so, Would man himself 
have died if he had not sinned ? I am inclined to think not. 
I take this position because I think the Bible teaches it in the 
first place; and, next, because it is clearly implied in the 
nature and the effects of the scheme of recovery. God, in his 
Word, says, " Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the 
world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men, 
for that all have sinned." Again, "Nevertheless, death 
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not 
sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is 
the figure of him that was to come." — Rom. v. 12, 14. This 
may be spiritual death, but it appears to me to be natural 
death. It commenced with Adam and continues to the 
present time. And, moreover, sin was the cause of it. Sin 
doubtless was the cause of spiritual death, but at the same 
time it could also be the cause of natural death — both soul 
and body might feel the effects of sin. Doubts have been 
entertained as to whether natural death was any part of the 
penalty of the law. But the question' still recurs, Would 
man have died if he had not sinned? I think the Bible and 
reason both say no. Both soul and body are necessary to 
constitute man, and certainly these were both included in the 
work of redemption — both are involved. The work of 
redemption has to do with the divine law — the law has been 
violated ; but if it could be shown that the body of man 
incurred no penalty with the soul, then it would appear that 
no satisfaction was necessary for the body, and that none was 
made by Christ. But what appears to be the facts in the 
case ? Did not the resurrection of Christ have some influence 
on the bodies of men? Is it not by his resurrection that the 
grave is spoiled of its prey ? Surely this is so. Christ is our 
resurrection, and surely his rising from the dead, by which he 
secured our resurrection and will finally raise all men, was no 
small part of the great work of redemption. We see that by 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 83 

his sufferings, death, and resurrection, this mortal is to put 
on immortality and death to be swallowed up in victory. All 
this seems to indicate that the atonement had much to do 
with the bodies of men; and if so they were under penalty by 
some cause. To suppose that our bodies were subjected to 
death as an outside matter after man had sinned, does not 
relieve our minds from the difficulty, but makes it worse. 
For such subjection by sovereign authority must have been 
founded on some act of man which related to law, and this of 
itself is like the penalty incurred by the soul, for that was 
subjected to a most fearful penalty, but it was righteously 
done — done in view of law and by way of enforcement of its 
just claims. We may feel certain that man's body would not 
have been subjected to death if he had never sinned. Natural 
'death would never have been his doom. Man is of the super- 
natural race, and under a superior law, one that differs in 
everyway from the law of birds and fish which appear to have 
died before man was made. And Christ redeemed all who 
were with Adam under this perfect law, both soul and body. 
He redeemed them from the curse. Infants die from some 
cause as well as adults. And we know of no probable cause 
so likely as the first parents' act in Eden. There appears to 
be no hazzard of any thing in the position that natural death 
is a part of the penalty of the law, for in this we find full 
redemption in Christ for the entire man ; and the body ascends 
to heaven as well as the soul, when sanctified. And all this 
is for Christ's sake and through him. I shall consider the 
effects of total depravity on the free agency of man in the 
next place. 

Depravity, as has been said, is impurity — corruption of the 
moral nature. It has none of the elements of agency in it, 
and although it never is found except in moral beings under 
moral government, yet it never constitutes any insurmount- 
able hindrance in the way of agency where it is required. It 
disqualifies for heaven, but not for the acceptance of free grace 
provided and offered to just such beings as God knew us to 
be. It. had nothing to do with man when he went off from 
God at first, and it has nothing to do in the way of his return 
to God, the plan of recovery being adapted to the case of man 



84 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

as it is. Man, as we have seen, acted independently of his 
moral nature when he departed, and he needs no change to 
come back. The freedom of the soul does not appear to be 
hindered or coerced by any thing; it was free at first, and it 
is no less so now. If man were required to accept of Christ 
by an exercise of love, he could not do it, never without a new 
heart; for love is the essence of religion. I have little or no 
sympathy with that scheme which removes from man all 
responsibility, and contends for a power behind the throne in 
moving man from God and then back again. This power is 
said to be necessary to free the will, which freedom was lost 
in the fall. Total depravity destroyed it, and it must be 
restored before pardon and life can be accepted. And what 
is this freeing of the will and restoration of ability ? What is 
done? Is the light of the Holy Spirit given to make manifest 
the sins of the soul and the corruption of the heart, and is 
this all ? I fully subscribe to all that and believe in the most 
deep conviction for sin ; but in all this I can see no freeing 
of the will or restoration of ability. Yet I think this to be 
God's plan, and with this God requires man to come to him, 
and with this he must come or be lost. If, however, it should 
be insisted on that depravity must be removed first, and that 
the free choice of the soul, which was lost by its influence, 
must be restored by regeneration at the outset, then I object; 
for I can see no middle ground between regeneration and a 
truly enlightened state. When we leave the one we approach 
the other; and if this enlightened state is what is meant by 
the advocates of will-freeing, we ought to know it — they 
ought to tell us as Calvanists do — for they say that regenera- 
tion alone frees the will and enables the sinner to accept of 
life. Regeneration, whether in whole or in part, is a qualifi- 
cation for heaven, and if it precedes the action of the will in 
the reception of Christ, it controls the will and cuts off all 
conditions. Whatever destroys the free action of the soul, or 
hinders ability in the acceptance of life must be counteracted 
or removed; and if depravity does this it must be removed 
or life eternal can never be chosen. Now, the question to be 
decided is this, Does the light of the Holy Spirit in the soul, 
short of a sanctifying power, remove depravity ? Certainly 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 85 

not; for we see that such as are fully enlightened continue 
depraved, and often die in despair. Divine light makes 
pollution manifest, but does not remove it by anything short 
of a regenerating power. Then the question, when solved, 
stands thus: If man lost his freedom of will and ability to 
accept of saving grace, by depravity, he must be regenerated 
before he can accept; but if he did not, then he can accept 
under the light of the Spirit before being regenerated. The 
former is the Calvanistic view, and the latter is the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian, and they are wide apart — the line is clear. 
There are those who speak of lost ability, and ability restored, 
and power given to believe, who never convey any idea which 
can be comprehended. They seem to occupy some place 
between regeneration and no regeneration, and never take 
either the one or the other: while the fact is plainly this, 
that nothing of depravity is removed by the enlightenment of 
the spirit — never; and if a depraved sinner has no ability in 
consequence of it, he will, as a matter of course, continue to 
have none while it remains, though fully enlightened. I am 
fully persuaded of the fact that man is totally depraved, has 
nothing good in him by nature. But notwithstanding this is 
his real state, it no more appears necessary that he must have 
a good and pure heart to come back to God, than it was that 
his heart must have been depraved and bad before he could 
depart at first. Purity, as we have seen, did not prevent his 
departure, nor does impurity prevent his return to Christ, 
since the plan has been adapted to save the impure on the 
condition of acceptance. If there is any other freeing of the 
will before faith in Christ than has been stated already, 
Christ never taught it, nor did his apostles. Sinners are 
drawn when they have the free offer of life and the light of 
the Holy Spirit in their hearts, but not forced by either a new 
will or a new heart — the heart comes and is renewed, but is 
not renewed to enable it to come. Whatever has been lost 
must be restored, and especially where it has a vital connec- 
tion with salvation. If, then, ability and freedom of will were 
lost in the fall, there must be a restoration in every case, or 
salvation could not be possible ; for such want of ability must 
constitute as complete a limit as if Christ had never died. 



86 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

We know that Christ died for all, and we know that the Spirit 
enlightens all; but we do not know that all are regenerated. 
Then, if ability is restored in all cases, it must be by the light 
of the Spirit in the heart, and not by regeneration or the 
removal of depravity. The removal of depravity from the 
heart leaves it pure and fit for heaven. "Blessed are the 
pure in heart, for they shall see God," said our Lord. Such 
as contend that man lost his freedom and all ability by the 
fall, have taken this position, believing it to be most in 
accordance with salvation by grace and most honoring to 
God. They hold that man was so completely lost by the fall 
that he must not only be saved by free grace, but that God 
must control his will absolutely. But who does not see that 
while this scheme saves such as are saved by grace, and se- 
cures all the glory to God, it seals the destiny of all others 
by the same agency. For if God had given ability to all 
others, who will say that they would not have made the sav- 
ing choice ? 

In contending for the freedom of the will and the respon- 
sibility of man, I contend for no ability which even squints 
at a self-saving power, but for that which can receive or re- 
ject saving grace when offered ; and I contend for it in such 
a sense as to throw the full weight of responsibility on man 
himself, as Christ did when he said to the wicked Jews, " Ye 
will not come to me, that ye might have life." — John v. 40. 
How any one can hold and maintain free agency, in any true 
sense, and yet believe that depravity destroyed man's free will 
and ability to accept saving grace, since Christ has died that 
we might have life, and might have it more abundantly, is 
what I cannot see. They speak of the will renewed, power 
given, ability restored, and a principle wrought in the heart. 
Now, I ask a Calvinist what he means by such terms, and he 
tells me plainly what he intends to teach : he intends to say 
that no sinner can come to Christ until his heart is regener- 
ated. But what do Cumberland Presbyterians mean by these 
terms ? If they reject the Calvinistic view, and only insist on 
the necessity of a truly enlightened state of the heart, let them 
tell us plainly. For there is no stand-point half way between 
depravity and regeneration ; depravity is either in the heart, 



LECTURES 0E DR. BURROW. 87 

after its full enlightenment by the Spirit, and before regene- 
ration, or it is not. If it yet remains, can such accept saving 
grace, with all this impurity in them, or must it be removed? 
Let us have the line clearly drawn, and cleared of smoke. I 
say, again, that depravity is no hindrance, for the very thing 
wanted, and for which the burthened heart pants and strives, 
is pardon for sin and deliverance from its damning power. 
And this he obtains by faith in Christ, and not before. I am 
the more careful in placing this matter in the clearest light 
possible, from the apparent fact that some have lost their 
stand-point, and sought to find it either in rigid Calvinism, or 
in Pelagianism. Calvinists contend for the loss of ability, not 
only to do good (which is true), but to accept the free gift of 
God, which is eternal life, and will have a power behind the 
throne to control the will, and yet insist on the responsibility 
of man ; this they must do, or charge God with the ruin of 
the lost in hell. They strive to maintain the responsibility of 
man, notwithstanding there is a power behind the throne, as 
best they can. But others, believing in the true freedom of 
man's soul, and his accountability, and yet that, if man is to- 
tally depraved, he has no ability whatever, have denied total 
depravity, and plunged into Pelagianism. This step has 
likely been taken, in view of man's agency, for the purpose 
of maintaining it consistently. Here it appears that such 
thinkers yield to the idea w T ith too much haste, that total de- 
pravity is inconsistent with the acceptance of saving grace. 
If salvation by grace is inconsistent and irreconcilable with 
a state of total depravity, how can it be consistent with a less 
degree of depravity, or with any degree whatever? If de- 
pravity, in any degree, has a tendency to destroy the power 
and freedom of the will, I do not see why the smallest degree 
would not do it, and continue so to do, until removed by sanc- 
tifying grace. This question, while it has crippled the doc- 
trine of free agency more than any other, has done nothing 
to magnify salvation by free grace ; nor has it brought any 
glory to God, for it has robbed him of the glory of such as 
are saved, by making him the instrument of the ruin of the 
lost. And if he did not do it by stern decrees, he did it by 
withholding the means of a possible salvation. The question 



88 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of the loss of man's free agency and ability by the fall, has, 
doubtless, been too readily taken as true without proof, when 
it should have been demanded. There is no want of Bible 
testimony to establish the fall and depravity of man, but it is 
all wanted to establish the loss of his free choice in relation to 
saving grace. It may be claimed from the Word of God, and 
the proof is as full and clear, to establish the free agency of 
man and the power of his will in the acceptance of eternal 
life under the scheme of recovery, as can be claimed for the 
establishment of his free will before he sinned and fell. And, 
again, there is as little propriety in supposing that he cannot 
come to God in tne way of mercy, without the removal of de- 
pravity, as there is that he could not depart and leave his first 
estate, without impurity in his soul before he took the step. 
I only wish to know that man, with all his depravity, is as 
free, and gains heaven as truly, by his own voluntary choice, 
as when he lost Eden. Man's soul is so perfectly free in its 
responsible actions as to be necessitated by no moral sensibil- 
ities or qualities apart from that self-moving volition given at 
first, and never taken away by the giver or lost by the re- 
ceiver. 

Next, it may be assumed that no system of doctrine is 
true and reliable which supersedes the atonement or the 
necessity of salvation by free grace alone. Both are essential 
in every sound creed. We are unable to see the necessity, 
however, of either beyond the range of the fall and deprav- 
ity of man. This fact, though overhung and surrounded 
with gloom, underlies the entire scheme of recovery by Jesus 
Christ, and is so connected with it that wherever it is set 
aside or denied, it necessarily saps the whole plan of free 
grace as presented in the Word of God. We believe and 
teach that Christ made a full and real atonement for all, for 
the entire race, but can this be true if any part was not 
fallen and depraved? Or, if any part of the race could and 
were to enter into life, could it be said that they were saved 
through the Son of God when he never tasted death for 
them? It must be manifest that none were redeemed by 
Christ, either soul or body, who were in no need and could 
enter into life independent of his death. Now, on the supposi- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 89 

tion that infants are not depraved and Christ never tasted 
death for them, through what medium are they saved, if 
saved at all ? Could it be said in truth and with propriety, 
that they enter heaven through Christ or that he is their 
life? All the race were infants except the first pair, and 
what is true of one must be so of all. If any are or could 
be saved independent of grace, all could, and shall we say 
that Christ made no atonement for any of the race except 
the first pair ? This would be a. strange gospel to preach to 
the world, and such as Paul and other inspired men never 
preached. Paul preached thus : " For the love of Christ 
constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for 
all, then were all dead : and that he died for all, that they 
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, 
but unto him which died for them, and rose again." — 
2 Cor. v. 14, 15. Here we see the reason why Christ 
died for all and rose again. He both died and rose 
that they who live through him and to him, might give 
him glory and praise forever. And again (1 Cor. in. 11) : 
" For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, 
which is Jesus Christ." Acts iv. 12: " Neither is there 
salvation in any other: for there is none other name 
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be 
saved." There is no salvation for any of the race only 
through Christ. He is the only medium of access to life 
eternal. 

There is a limit to the atonement — a marked limit. Christ 
only died for such as are fallen and depraved, and for no 
others. If infants are not depraved when born, and should 
consequently need no atonement and no grace to sanctify 
them, and Christ died not for them, should they live to the 
years of accountability and commit sin and become depraved, 
how are they to be saved in that event? Can they, notwith- 
standing, be saved in some other way? Or must the Son 
of God die again for them ? For if they were not included 
with the first pair when Christ died once and rose again, by 
what process will they have any part in that atonement? 
There can be only one of the following means of life : Either 
there must be another atonement, or they must become in 
6 



90 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

some way interested in that which did not include them at 
first. It seems to me to require too much of an effort for 
any common mind to believe, that Christ died for pure and 
perfect souls, or that he died to redeem our bodies and left 
our souls out of the question as an after thought, to be pro- 
vided for at some other time or in some other way. I main- 
tain that the extent of the fall and the depth of the deprav- 
ity, aid us much in the argument when an effort is made 'to 
prove the extent of the atonement and the efficacy of divine 
grace. For if all were not fallen and depraved, then it not 
being necessary, Christ did not die for all; but if all were 
involved and could not be saved otherwise, then he tasted 
death and gave himself a ransom for all. This made salva- 
tion possible for all in every case which has occurred in this 
world of sin and death. Nothing can be gained in any way 
by a denial of general depravity in this world and its totality 
in every case, for if the plan of recovery is adapted to the 
entire case, as it is, that is all we want. God can as well save 
from much depravity as from a less degree, and we can as 
truly be saved in conformity with our responsibility. Both 
salvation by grace and man's free agency are true and must 
be maintained, and so must the fall and depravity of the race 
and the extent of the atonement. Paul, in speaking of the 
fall and also the plan of recovery, says, "Therefore, as by 
the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condem- 
nation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift 
came upon all men unto justification of life." — Rom. v. 18. 
Here it is seen that all suffered by one, and the same all 
were redeemed by oue Lord Jesus Christ. See also 1 Cor. 
xv. 21-23: a For since by man came death, by man came 
also the resurrection of the dead, for as in Adam all die, 
so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own 
order ; Christ the first fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's 
at his corning." This last connection of Scripture, it is true, 
has reference to the general resurrection, but we see that all 
suffered in the first place by one man's sin. They were all 
subjected to natural death. And in the next place, we are 
informed that all were favored by one, who died and rose 
again. The resurrection of Christ and his death which 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 91 

preceded were for one purpose: to redeem the world; and 
no one can have any part in one and none in the other. 
Those who have part in his resurrection must be interested 
in his death also. Hence, as all died in Adam, all were 
redeemed by Christ, and consequently all will be made alive 
by the resurrection of Christ, who, Paul says, " died for 
them and rose again." We see that he both died and rose 
again for all who died in Adam. Therefore, as we have 
seen, u if he died for all, then were all dead." Not only 
does the Bible fully prove that all died or suffered greatly by 
the fall of Adam, but we ourselves and our infant offspring 
are suffering now in many ways. And although we cannot 
believe, and do not, that infants are personal sinners, yet it 
does appear from all we can see and know of them, that 
they are depraved ; for in all cases known to us they early 
depart from God. They are not now as Adam was before he 
fell; he was pure: they are impure or depraved, and we see 
them act it out in early life; and we can conceive of no plan 
better adapted to meet their case and secure their certain 
salvation, than to place them in Christ with a full interest in 
him and all he has done. And there is no plan known to us 
in which our bodies are interested in the Son of God while 
our souls are left out, and this would evidently be so if infant 
bodies only are impure, while their souls are perfect and fit 
for heaven independent of the atonement. All children, we 
have thought, come into this life, into existence, through 
Jesus Christ, by virtue of which they are interested in the 
grace of the kingdom; for Christ said, " Of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." The kingdom of which he spoke is 
certainly the kingdom of grace so frequently referred to by 
him and his apostles. Little children, therefore, belong to 
the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of grace, from their 
relationship to Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the 
life. But while this is a fact, does it follow as a certain and 
necessary sequence that they are pure and altogether free 
from depravity ? How, then, could they be of the kingdom? 
If the purity of their souls placed them in the kingdom 
independent of grace inherited through Christ, how are their 
impure bodies brought into the kingdom ? For certainly 



92 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Christ did not intend to exclude their bodies from the king- 
dom because of impurity, while the soul was owned as being 
of the kingdom for its native purity. This declaration of 
Christ does not establish the purity of such as are referred 
to. It only proves their salvable condition in consequence 
of the grace of the kingdom having been secured to them 
through Christ. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 



LECTURE VII.— THE DOCTRINE OF ATONE- 
MENT. 



Since man is a sinner, and condemned by the laws of God, 
nothing can be more reasonable and certain than that an 
atonement was necessary, in order to make salvation possi- 
ble, that he might be placed in a salvable state, by such a 
scheme as would at once maintain the honor of the divine 
throne, and afford to him an ample and a certain ground of 
pardon, and eternal life. This doctrine cannot be fully un- 
derstood and safely taught, without reference to, and a 
knowledge of, the divine law. A correct knowledge of the 
law prepares the way for a correct understanding of the evil 
and damning nature of sin, as well as the gospel remedy for 
sin. The law and the gospel are not the same — the one is 
the rule of obedience and standard of purity and perfection : 
the other is the merciful and gracious expedient devised by 
divine wisdom to raise man up to the standard of perfection 
and fit him for heaven. While the former teaches the nature 
and extent of sin, the other teaches the nature and extent of 
recovery frpm sin. For if the gospel provides less for man 
than the law demands of him, the remedy is to him worth- 
less, and can avail him nothing, as it is true that by the deeds 
of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight, and 
man cannot help himself — he must continue under condem- 
nation. But if it provides to meet his case as it is, and what 
his condition requires, then it is to him glad tidings of great 
joy. Then, as the law leads us to a knowledge of sin, and 
the lost, helpless, and ruined condition of man, and suggests 
to us the needful remedy, it will be fit and right, at this time, 
to bestow some attention to that subject. 

The law of which we speak is the moral law — so denom- 
inated by all orthodox divines. It was first visibly written 






94 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

by the finger of God upon tables of stone, and handed to 
Moses on Mount Sinai, and afterward expounded by Christ 
to have its fulfilment in love to God and love to man ; on 
these two commandments, he tells us, all the law and the 
prophets hang. The Bible teaches us that God is love ; this 
being true, it must be that this law of love existed in him 
from all eternity, being essentially right in and of itself, and 
never can either change or cease to be, as God cannot: "It 
is holy, just, and good," as the Psalmist says, "thy com- 
mandment is exceeding broad." Nothing can be added to it, 
to make it more perfect, and nothing can or ought to be taken 
from it, to make it less so. As this is the measure of all moral 
perfection, it was the standard by which God made man at 
first, when he made him in his own likeness and image. 
And as it was the law of his creation, it was right that it 
should be the law of his obedience — the law of gospel per- 
fection, and finally the law of judgment, by which all men 
will be judged. God having made man by this rule, it was 
right that it should be his law forever, and that the one 
should exist while the other remains. This pure law was by 
the finger of God impressed — yea, written — upon man's 
heart and soul when he made him, before it was written 
upon the tables of stone and given to Moses. The measure 
of its purity is the meetness for heaven, w r hile the opposite 
of this is the blackness of darkness and the fuel of hell for- 
ever. And as none can be saved but by the gospel plan, so 
none will or ought to be turned into hell but for its rejection. 
And those who are saved by the law-honoring plan will- be 
saved in life, saved in death, and saved forever, and will 
never come into condemnation. But those who reject this 
plan will be cursed by the law as long as it endures, and will 
be " anathema maranatha" when the Lord comes, as neglect- 
ors and rejectors of this great salvation. It is true that God 
gave to man a positive command interdicting the use of one 
tree of the garden, which command was founded upon the 
moral law, and was nothing more than a declaration of this 
law requiring obedience, and an expression of its true pen- 
alty; therefore, when he disobeyed the command, he sinned 
and fell under its curse, which, like the law, was eternal ; the 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 95 

penalty was incurred by his failure in obedience. Now, the 
remedial system must not only provide to meet the penalty, 
but also to render that kind and amount of obedience which 
the law required of Adam, our first federal head and repre- 
sentative; nothing less will do. Now, as the law is holy, and 
the commandment holy, and just, and good, and exceeding 
broad, and can never be altered or done away, but must be 
fully met and satisfied, in order to a possible salvation for 
man, we see, at once, that man himself, with all the angels of 
heaven to aid him, could never consummate the work of re- 
demption — no, none but him who is the Lord from heaven, 
who, being united with humanity, could redeem man. As 
God united with and joined to humanity, he could strengthen 
it in that course of active obedience which the law required, 
so as to render the full measure of obedience; and then by 
the same he could strengthen and sustain it under the penal 
sanction, and sanctify the offering and make it all that man's 
condition required, or the law demanded. Then, as God, he 
had power to lay down his life, and power to take it up again ; 
and not only power, but he had the right to lay down life, 
being the author of life ; when he laid it down, he laid down 
his own, and by the same right and power he could, as he did, 
take it up again, and grant repentance and remission of sins, 
and save, to the uttermost, all that come unto God through 
him. When we speak of the atonement of Christ, we mean 
his obedient life, his suffering and satisfactory death, and his 
conquering and triumphant resurrection from the tomb; 
whether it be called redemption, propitiation, or atonement, 
it matters not, as these names are all used in the New Testa- 
ment with reference to the same wonderful work. But now 
the question comes up, Was this vicarious ? Did he suffer and 
die for us in our room and stead, and rise again for our justi- 
fication ? We take the affirmative of the question, and shall 
endeavor to prove it. 

If it had not been that Christ suffered for us, and in our 
room and stead, we must suffer the penalty of the law for 
ourselves and in our own persons, and that to the full extent. 
Therefore, our sufferings must needs be eternal, " for by the 
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." 



96 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

It is certain we shall not be justified in this life, and we dare 
not presume that we shall in the life or world to come, but 
must continue under condemnation, both here and hereafter, 
forever. Now, as eternal condemnation is only another name 
for hell, if we are condemned, as the Bible declares, and never 
can be justified by our own works, unless we can be justified 
by the works and doings of Christ, we are doomed to suffer 
the vengeance of eternal fire, and hell is our portion. But if 
Christ did suffer and die for as, a3 the Bible clearly teaches, 
then salvation is possible for us, and we may be made the 
righteousness of God in him, and be justified from all things 
from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses (or 
by works.) 

Let it be once established that there exists a law which has 
dominion over this lower world, and holds just and righteous 
claims upon all, and binds all men to love God with all the 
soul, etc., and to render to him personal, perfect, and perpet- 
ual obedience, and then let it be proven that all have sinned 
and come short of the glory of God, and are, consequently, 
condemned by the law, and nothing can be more scriptural 
and certain than that the law must either be annihilated or 
met in its claims, or it will have an eternal bearing upon the 
guilty and punish them forever: one of two things, then, 
must be true, either man must satisfy the law for himself, 
and remove the curse from his own soul, or it must be done 
by another for him, and in his room and stead, or his salva- 
tion is impossible. To suppose that man can, in his fallen 
state, satisfy the law and remove the curse, is as fully con- 
demned by the Word of God as the notion that he can be 
saved contrary to, and in direct violation of, law ; and equally 
absurd is the sentiment that the curse can be removed, or any 
part of satisfaction be made to the law, for us by another 
who does not take our place in law, and, for us and in our 
room and stead, meet and satisfy all its claims against us, and 
that we could, in any way, be benefitted by such suffering; and 
the sentiment is, as it must be, of a deistical tendency, and as 
much at war with the Bible as it is with the possible salva- 
tion of man. If what we have said is true of one of the race, 
it must be true of all : for if the vicarious suffering and death 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 97 

of Christ were essentially necessary for any one of the race, 
they were equally so for all. All, then, for whom lie suffered 
and died in this sense can be saved, and no others ; and to say 
that they can, is virtually to say that all could, and that Christ 
died in vain, or that his sufferings and death were only de- 
signed to exhibit a life of piety, and as an example to us of 
patient endurance, as say the Arians and Socinians. All who 
have objected to the vicarious atonement of Christ, and have 
spurned the idea of the innocent Lamb of God suffering in 
the stead of guilty man, have either denied the true and real 
divinity of Christ, or the authenticity of the Scriptures, or 
both. For no one could object to the idea of Christ suffering" 
in our room and stead — the just for the unjust — who admits 
that he was the very God. All who admit that, are ready to 
admit that he had the right to lay down his life to justice for 
the accomplishment of his purposes of mercy and free grace, 
and in doing so he onlj exercised his divine prerogative, and 
no being in the universe has any right to object. Christ says, 
" Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my 
life that I ma} 7 take it again. No man taketh it from me, but 
I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I 
have power to take it up again." — John x. 17, 18. 

To prove that Christ, in making atonement for us, suffered 
and died in our room and stead, the Scriptures of divine truth 
may be confidently appealed to as being fully sufficient. That 
he suffered and died is true, but that it was for himself is not 
true, and has never been assumed but by the veriest infidels. 
Then it must have been for us, as the Bible teaches. See 
Gal. iv. 4, 5 : " But when the fullness of the time was come, 
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the 
law, to redeem them that were under the law." And in. 13 : 
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 
made a curse for us : for it is written, cursed is every one that 
hangeth on a tree." And Peter, speaking of Christ, says: 
" Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, 
that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness; 
by whose stripes ye were healed." 1 Peter n. 24, Rom. v. 6-8 : 
" For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ 
died for the ungodly," etc. ; " But God commendeth his love 



98 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for 
us." 2 Cor. v. 21 : " For he hath made him to be sin (or a 
sin offering) for us who knew no sin, that we might be made 
the righteousness of God in him." Then Peter informs us 
that the innocent did suffer for the guilty, that they might be 
brought to God — might be saved : " For Christ also hath 
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might 
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quick- 
ened by the Spirit." — 1 Peter in. 18. Then he tells us that 
we were redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus, as of a 
lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 John n. 2 : "And 
he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but 
also for the sins of the whole world." Then in Isaiah liii. 
4-6 we have these very emphatic words : " Surely he hath 
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows : yet we did esteem 
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was 
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our in- 
iquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and 
with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have 
gone astray : we have turned every one to his own way, and 
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." If lan- 
guage can convey ideas to the human mind, surely the above 
quotations are amply sufficient to prove, beyond all doubt, 
that the Lord Jesus Christ did suffer and die for us, and in 
our room and stead. He redeemed us with his precious 
blood; he was made sin for us (sin offering); he bore our 
sins in his own body on the tree (cross) ; he was wounded 
for our transgressions, and by his stripes we are healed and 
made the righteousness of God in him, etc. These and 
many other passages go to present the doctrine of the vica- 
rious nature of the atonement of Christ in the clearest light 
of which language is capable, and to place our salvation 
alone upon that foundation — the immutable rock. 

There are not a few who, while they agree with us that 
Christ suffered and died in our room and stead — for us in the 
full and true sense of that term — and that we are justified 
and saved alone through his righteousness, at the same time 
differ with us widely as to the extent of the atonement. For 
while we believe that Christ died for all in the same sense 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 99 

and to the same extent, and rendered salvation possible for 
all, there are many (good Christians, we doubt not) who 
hold that he only died for a part, and that salvation is' only 
possible for a part. Now, these are two wide extremes, and 
never can come together upon any supposed middle ground, 
for there is none. And we take the position here, all or none. 
For, to our mind, it is as clear as that two and two make four, 
that wherever and whenever the Word of God speaks of the 
atonement made by Christ for sinners, it either negatively or 
positively proves that all the world was included in the very 
same sense. The reason why we say all or none — that Christ 
either died for all or none — is not rashness. For we feel well 
assured that the same amount of Scripture testimony which 
goes to prove the doctrine of the atonement, and that Christ 
died for sinners, goes, with equal force, to prove that it was 
for all; and the reader will remember that such is true in re- 
gard to the foregoing part. 

Negative testimony, in the Bible, is never contradictory of 
positive testimony on any point or matter of fact, but always 
may be construed by the positive, without injustice or detri- 
ment to the truth in the case; but never can the positive be 
construed by the negative so as to weaken its force, or in any 
way to contradict it. 

By negative testimony, in this case, we mean such passages 
of Scripture as testify to the fact that Christ died for sinners, 
and in their room and stead, but do not say for all, all men, 
the whole world, etc. By positive proof, we mean all such as 
speak of the suffering of Christ, stating, at the same time, 
that it was for all, every one, or the whole world, etc., using 
some universal term to qualify it. There are some passages 
which appear, at first, only to afford negative proof, which, 
on a more careful examination and strict scrutiny, will be 
seen to be positive. Such as the following from John xvi. 
17: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only be- 
gotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not per- 
ish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into 
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through 
him might be saved." The word world, in this place, takes 
in all men, all the race, and leaves out none. It is declared 



100 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

that God loved this world, so that he gave his only son for 
it, manifestly to die for it, that it might be saved. For while 
there is nothing said of his death, in this connection, it is neg- 
atively said that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, 
but positively shall have everlasting life; and as none could 
have life but through his death, we are to understand that he 
was given to die, and that for the world which God loved, and 
gave him for, that salvation might be possible for all, and that 
none should perish of necessity, and without a full and fair 
opportunity of being saved, for the next verse says, "For 
God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, 
but that the world through him might be saved." Here is a 
positive declaration that God sent his son into the world that 
the world through him might be saved. And that which is 
said of one, is said of all ; and what God gave, he gave for 
all, with a single purpose : and whatever Christ came to do 
for the world, was for every one in or belonging to it, and for 
one as much as another: that all might be saved, and that all 
who believe shall. It may be safely stated that, if God loved 
the world, and sent his son for the express purpose that the 
world might be saved, if his son failed to make a full and real 
atonement for all, thereby rendering the salvation of all fully 
possible, he certainly did not do what he was sent to do; no, 
not even in part, but made a perfect failure, and accomplished 
nothing for any of the race. 

It may possibly be said, by those who limit the atonement 
to a part, and do not admit that Christ died for all, that there 
are cases in which the words world, all, every, and such like 
universal terms, may, in some cases, be limited, and only 
mean all of a certain class or kind. This, however, may be 
admitted without weakening, in the least degree, our argu- 
ment. In all cases, when such universals are used, the thing- 
spoken of and referred to, with the other circumstances, must 
determine the true meaning. The passage under considera- 
tion is one of many which cannot be limited, by any acknowl- 
edged rule, to a less number than the whole world of sinners — 
every soul of Adam's race. All the circumstances, in the lan- 
guage of God, and the subject matter in the case, forbid it, 
under no less a penalty than that of extreme rashness in 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 101 

handling the Word of God. In Ezekiel xxxiii. 11, there is 
both negative and positive testimony on the same subject. 
" Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no 
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn 
from his way and live : turn ye, turn ye, from your evil 
ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel ? " The people 
addressed here were the Israelites. At any rate, they are 
mentioned by name in the latter part of the verse as the im- 
mediate subjects of the solemn exhortation of Jehovah. But 
all Israel was certainly included, and certainly the wicked; 
yes, all the wicked among them, or of that house. God most 
solemnly lifts his voice and asseverates that he has no pleas- 
ure in their death — in the death of the wicked (meaning all 
of them). This is the negative member of the verse. The 
positive is, but that they turn and live — that is, that I have 
pleasure in that they turn and live. Now, if this verse should 
be limited to the Israelites, yet it is certain that they were all 
included, aud God had no pleasure in the death of any of 
them; and as they could not live or have eternal life but in 
and through the Lord Jesus Christ, it certainly was the good 
will and pleasure of God to give his son, that they might have 
life, and have it more abundantly. 

It may be safely affirmed that no Jew ever went to hell be- 
cause it was the will and pleasure of God, nor yet because 
Christ never made salvation possible for him, hut because he 
would not come unto him, that he might have life ; for God 
cannot withhold life and righteously charge the wicked with 
their own destruction, as he evidently does. What we have 
said of the Jews is true of the Gentiles, in this respect, which 
we shall prove in the sequel. It may be proper to state, in 
this place, that whenever negative and positive testimony are 
united in the establishment of any proposition or fact, they 
constitute the strongest possible form of affirmation which 
can be brought to bear upon the human mind ; as when God 
says I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, hut, posi- 
tively, that I have pleasure in their life. The first member 
of the sentence shows that he has done nothing, at any time, 
or in any way, to involve them in sin and death, while the 
last member proves that he has or will do all that he can, 



102 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

consistently with his righteous character, to prevent it, and 
that he will not leave them to perish in their sins unpitied 
and unprovided for, when it is in his power to afford them an 
ample remedy. And surely no Christian man will gainsay 
this, nor can he do it (whatever may he his dogmas), without 
charging God with duplicity and falsehood. And this is the 
more apparent, when followed by a most pressing exhortation 
to turn and live; yes, "turn and live, for why will ye die, 
sinners? 5 ' John the Baptist says of Christ: "Behold the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sjn of the world." — 
John i. 29. And the beloved John, in his first Epistle, chap- 
ter i., verse 2, says : " My little children, these things write I 
unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have 
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. 
And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours 
only, but also for the sins of the whole world." These pas- 
sages, taken together, make out a very strong case. The first 
says that the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world, 
which evidently includes the world of sinners — all who sin- 
ned and fell in Adam. And the least that can be said by 
way of comment on the text is, that he came to be and was, 
in fact, a sin offering for the whole world of sinners, and that 
the offering made by him was coextensive with the miseries 
of man and the ruins of the fall. The other text is a good 
answer, and ought to be a quietus to the notion that Christ 
only died for th^- elect, and not for all the fallen race. First, 
it will be observed that the Lord, speaking of the elect as 
such — of Christians — distinguishes between them and the 
unregenerate most clearly. He said to his disciples that his 
kingdom was not of this world, and that they were not of 
the world; they were separated from it by their faith and 
spirit. Yet they had once been of the world, and were chil- 
dren of wrath, like other men, but by faith in Christ they had 
become the children of God, elected to the heavenly inheri- 
tance. And John writes to such, and calls them little chil- 
dren, and says unto them that Christ is a propitiation for 
their sins — keeping up the same distinction between the chil 
dren of God and the world of sinners yet in their sins. 

But, in the second place, it will be seen, that, while the 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 103 

above-named distinction is made between the children of 
God and the world, the apostle plainly declares that Christ is 
the propitiation (atonement) for the sins of both. "And he 
is the propitiation for our sins (the little children), and not 
for ours only, but also (in like manner) for the sins of the 
whole world." This would be a tight place for a rigid pre- 
destinarian to struggle through, who either contends that 
Christ only died for a certain definite number, and for 
no other — not for all men; or that if he did die for all, in 
any sense, it was in. a special sense for the elect, and in a com- 
mon sense for the non-elect, and that special grace was pro- 
vided for the former, and only common grace for the latter : 
i. e., grace effectually to save the one part, and only grace 
effectually and completely to damn the other forever in hell. 
As we have remarked, they could not make out the case that 
this definite number, called the elect, is the world, the whole 
world, for whom Christ died ; and it. would be still more dif- 
ficult to sustain the position that he died for no others, when 
it is affirmed, in the "Word of God, that he is the propitiation 
for both classes, in the same sense and to the same extent, and 
died equally for all, whether they be called elect or non-elect, 
good or bad, saints or sinners, Jews or Gentiles — yes, for the 
Whole world. 

One truth must be plain to impartial readers of the Bible : 
That if Christ ever did bear the sins of any part of the world 
in his body on the tree, and did suffer and die in their room 
and stead — and, still further, did make for them a full and 
real atonement for sin — that he done the very same for the 
whole world, without distinction, partiality, or respect of per- 
sons; and we may confidently rely upon it as being the uni- 
versal, uncontradicted, harmonious testimony of God's Word, 
and is so believed and taught by Cumberland Presbyterians. 
This great leading truth is presented, in a very clear light, by 
Paul in his 2d Epistle to the Corinthians, v. chapter, 14th and 
15th verses : " For the love of Christ constraineth us ; because 
we thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead : and 
that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth 
live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and 
rose again." 



104 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Orthodox Christians, at this day, harmonize as to the doc- 
trine of the fall and depravity of all men : that all, by nature, 
are dead in trespasses and sin ; but they differ widely as to 
whether Christ died for all or only a part of the race. Many 
contend that he only died for a part. In the days of Paul, 
however, it was different; for it appears that all agreed that 
Christ died for all men, but did not admit that all were dead. 
It will be remembered that there were those among the Jews 
who thanked God that they were not as other men; and some 
even charged our Lord with crime, because he ate with pub- 
licans and sinners, and it seemed difficult to convince them 
that they, too, were sinners, and liable to perish as well as 
other men. And Paul labored to convince the Jew T s that all 
were children of wrath — Jews as well as Gentiles — and could 
only be saved by the blood and righteousness of Christ. In 
the argument contained in the above quotation, he lays down 
an axiom, an acknowledged fact, which was undisputed, and 
argues and draws his conclusions from that. If, however, his 
premise had been disputed, it would have been necessary, in 
the argument, first, to have proven that; but this seems to 
have been settled — that one did really die for all. Then, lay- 
ing this down as admitted, and not to be disputed, he says : 
"For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus 
judge that if one died for all, then were all dead." And hav- 
ing proven, from his axiom, that all were dead, he then affirms 
that one died for all, and argues, from that consideration, that 
they ought no longer to live unto themselves, but unto him 
who died for them and rose again. But there is a peculiarity 
in the language of the apostle, which it may not be amiss to 
call attention to. He says, the love of Christ constraineth us 
thus to judge and decide. How did the love of Christ con- 
strain him, and all the apostles and Christians of that day, to 
come to that decision with regard to these two points of doc- 
trine? We may answer, that it was the love of Christ that 
guided them into it. For it is evident that the love of God 
to lead him (so to speak) to give his only begotten son to re- 
deem the whole world, as it is said, " For God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 105 

For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the 
world, but that the world, through him, might be saved." 
Now, the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, is the 
same, and when it is shed abroad into the soul, at the time 
of regeneration, by the Holy Ghost, it has a correlative influ- 
ence, and flows out into the same channel, and the soul is 
pressed by its overpowering influence to say, Surely all were 
dead, but God loved the world, and Christ died for the world, 
and there is a fullness in Christ for the salvation of the whole 
world. 

It is worthy of special remark, that all Christians feel this 
same constraining power of the love of God at the time of 
conversion, and are all agreed that Christ died tor all man- 
kind ; and it always continues to be so, where they are happy 
in the love of God. And no minister, in times of great revi- 
vals, being truly in the revival spirit, warmed and tilled with 
the love of God, has ever been known to limit the atonement, 
or preach any thing contrary to the general redemption plan 
of salvation, whatever may be the sentiment of his head, at 
other times, when his heart is cold. And, moreover, when- 
ever the opposite opinion is preached, it never fails to chill 
the soul of him or them who do preach it, and to chill all 
around them like the wind in winter, or a shower of snow 
falling upon the people. 

Now, if the doctrine of general atonement has a tendency 
to promote revivals, and the opposite a tendency to chill and 
kill them off, surely it ought to suffice to convince all that the 
Spirit owns and accompanies the one as his own diction and 
Word, and disowms and condemns the other as false and op- 
posed to the best interests of souls, and the glorious uprising 
of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 

And, finally, it may be said, that every system of doctrine 
which does not promote revivals when preached, ought never 
to be preached, but laid upon the shelf to sleep the sleep of 
death. If the Jews ever held any thing in the form of a lim- 
ited atonement, or that a part of the race was abandoned of 
God, and left to die in their sins without remedy, it was in 
this form — that all the descendants of Abraham were the 
Lord's peculiar people, and they alone were interested in the 
7 



106 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Messiah, while the Gentiles had neither part nor lot in the 
Son of David. But they were effectually converted from that 
error (at least the Christian part of them), when Peter, by the 
direction of God, preached to the Gentiles at the house of 
Cornelius, and Paul became their apostle. But they never 
held that any of Abraham's seed would be lost without rem- 
edy, so far as we can learn. And we may say, without the 
fear of successful contradiction, that no apostle of Christ ever 
held to a limited atonement, or any thing of that texture, 
after they were endowed with the Holy Ghost. Nor did 
they ever preach or write it, so far as we can learn from the 
Bible. But always the contrary. Though some men have 
made out to infer it from their writings, in opposition to the 
most solemn declaration of God. 

As Paul is thought, by some, to have been a predestinarian, 
something like the modern school, we shall quote from him 
again (see 1 Tim., n. 4-6) : "Who will have all men to be 
saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For 
there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, 
the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to 
be testified in due time." These are not the words of one 
who believed the doctrine or unconditional election and rep- 
robation ; the teaching is the very opposite. Here we see 
presented, in miniature, the great fundamental doctrines of 
our holy religion. There is one world, and that world has 
sinned and rebelled against God, and would have sunk to 
perdition, under his wrath, but for the interposition of the 
Mediator. He took his stand between God and the world of 
rebels, and suspended the stroke of divine vengeance, and 
afforded them a respite from punishment and a day of grace. 
If he had not done this for all men, and part had been left 
out of the arrangement, they would as certainly have felt the 
full weight of divine wrath, as that God is holy and just. 
This will neither be doubted nor denied by any Bible Chris- 
tian. And God's wrath would not have turned away from 
any of all the race by the bare presence of the Mediator, or 
any partial satisfaction, or half pay to divine justice : »it 
could only be done by full and complete satisfaction for all 
and every one; for the law knows of no lenity, all is de- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 107 

manded, and must be paid to the uttermost farthiug. This 
Christ came to do, and for this purpose he filled the mediato- 
rial station between God and men — all men. In truth, we 
can in no otber way account for our own existence as sinners, 
under the violated law of God : it must be through the me- 
dium of the Mediator that we came into being, and are suf- 
fered to live out of hell; and in consideration of the full and 
complete atonement whicb he was to make, and did make in 
due time, for all, and not a part. 

Here we may dwell for a time on the representative arrange- 
ment of Jehovah, and show that Adam, as the first federal 
head and representative of the race, sustained such a relation 
to all his descendants in the government of God, as by his 
violation of the law placed them under condemnation and 
justly exposed them to wrath divine. And why were they 
not turned into hell ? Manifestly because the will of God 
was otherwise. He not only willed not to pour his vengeance 
upon them, but willed their salvation through his Son. He 
loved them with the love of commiseration, and gave his 
Son to redeem them ; as Paul has said, " Who will have all 
men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the 
truth." If then he willed it, he certainly chose it, and if he 
chose it, he certainly appointed and arranged it so to be. 
Here is will first ; appointment, decree or election next, and 
then the thing is done according to his purpose or plan, and 
all the means of grace are provided and arranged to afford 
all a full and fair opportunity of being saved. For God 
could not will, as Paul says, that all men should be saved, or 
to have them saved, and not provide the ransom and all the 
means of their salvation, when it was possible for him to do 
it and maintain the rights of his eternal throne. This will 
hardly be disputed. It will next be seen that as God placed 
the first representative at the head of the race, by whose 
voluntary transgression judgment came upon all men to 
condemnation, that he, willing their salvation, placed, by 
appointing and sending his own Son as mediator, him to be 
the second federal head and representative of the same, and 
all who fell in the first man, that he might redeem them all. 
And now, " as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all 



108 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, 
the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." 
As Paul says (Heb. n. 9), "But we see Jesus, who was made 
a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, 
crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, 
should taste death for every man." Thus we see that the 
grace of God, and his plan of salvation, was as free from 
partiality as he is from imperfection. But how was Christ, 
the mediator, made a little lower than the angels, and for 
what? For he was certainly the very and eternal God from 
everlasting to everlasting, and continues so to be. He was 
made lower than the angels by uniting his divine nature 
with the human. As Paul says, " He was made of a woman, 
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the 
law." Yes, to redeem all who were condemned by the law 
from its curse, being made a curse for them, as he was, by 
bearing their sins in his own body on the tree (cross). 
Christ, as God, held the rights of the divine throne in his 
almighty and immutable, hand, that not one jot or tittle 
could fail till all was fulfilled. As man, possessed of a real 
body and soul, he w^as under the same law r which cursed 
Adam and his posterity, and as fully represented all in his 
acts and doings, in his mediatorial office throughout, as the 
first Adam did, and as certainly redeemed them from the 
the curse of the law as the first man brought them under it. 
As mediator between God and man, he held in one hand the 
rights of the throne, and in the other he held an unflinching 
grasp upon the entire race of man, and became the connect- 
ing link, as God manifest in the flesh, between God and his 
ruined world; and by the grace of God, who will have all 
men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth, 
he never loosed his grasp or broke his hold until he tasted 
death for every man, and the law was satisfied and the world 
redeemed. Paul says that he had proved that both Jews 
and Gentiles were under the law. This being true, when 
Christ was made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem 
them that were under it, he redeemed both. For God is not 
the God of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles, and would 
have them to be saved as well as the Jews. All this, accord- 






LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 109 

ing to the text, is to be testified in due time. " Who gave 
himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." True, 
it is fully testified in the Word of God, and never ought to 
have been controverted by mortal man, though some have 
done so, and said a part only were ransomed by the Mediator, 
and that God would only have a part to be saved and the 
other part to be damned forever and that without remedy. 
But now the testimony in due time : how is it given ? We 
are informed iu the Sacred Scriptures " that there are three 
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word or Son, 
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one." Now, the 
Father testifies, by his eternal existence, that he has no 
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but has pleasure in 
their salvation, and will have all men to be saved and to 
come unto the knowledge of the truth. The Son testifies 
that he came to seek and to save that which was lost, and to 
do the will of his Father by tasting death for every man. 
The Holy Ghost testifies the same as the Father and Son, 
and reproves the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judg- 
ment; for these three being one, their testimony is one and 
the same. The Holy Spirit, however, is said to be truth or 
the true witness. 1 John v. 6: "And it is the Spirit that 
beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth." He has 
inspired men to write the truth, and gives energy and power 
to the truth when preached, and he is the sanctifier of souls. 
It is, however, said of him that he shall reprove the world 
of sin, etc. This he does as truly as that God loved the 
world and gave his Son to redeem it, who tasted death for 
every man, and he does it in due time to accomplish their 
salvation, and to as wio^e an extent as the love of God and 
the death of Christ; for we have seen that the world, in 
Bible language, means the wicked — sinner's of Adam's race, 
and all of them which have any thing to do with it, and 
constitute any part of it; these shall all be reproved of sin, 
of righteousness, and of judgment in due time, as Christ 
said. If this is true, there is a possible salvation 
for all, but if not, the unenlightened by the Spirit 
will all be lost, whether Christ died for them or 
not, as we can see no Bible assurance for their sanctifi- 



110 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

cation through Christ, unenlightened and unaided by the 
Spirit. 

Paul has said of God, " That he will have all men to be 
saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth; for 
there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, 
the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to 
be testified in due time." And in 1 Tim, iv. 10, he says, 
" For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because 
we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, 
especially of those that believe." 

Christ as the Saviour of all men, does not save all uncon- 
ditionally, but provides salvation for them — places it within 
their reach. Those who are competent to believe, and do so, 
he saves specially or truly. But all those who are incom- 
petent to believe, such as infants, etc., God has not suspended 
their salvation upon any thing as a condition required of 
them; it depends alone in the faithfulness of the Spirit to 
wash them in the blood of Christ and fit them for heaven. 
With regard to the heathen, we may be indulged with a few 
remarks. Man} 7 who believe and talk much about the extent 
of the atonement, so far as we can learn from them, believe 
that all who have not the gospel in word, have none in sub- 
stance and in spirit, but are all lost forever. A strange 
notion, that of God's plan of grace and salvation. Paul 
evidently did not so believe and teach. He says, " For when 
the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things 
contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law 
unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in 
their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their 
thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one 
another." — Pom. i. 14, 15. This proves that God's grace 
and salvation were there. The law was written in their 
hearts, and they had a knowledge of good and evil by the 
Spirit of God, that wrote or impressed the divine law upon 
their hearts, which was done through Christ the medium 
of mercy. Then, as many of them as trust in the mercy 
of God under the influence of the Spirit, are saved through 
Christ by the sanctifying power of the Spirit, whether they 
know the name of Christ in a form of words or not — that is, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. Ill 

the name, or Christ, through which they are saved. And 
their infants are saved through the same name, or Christ, 
and as they are in our gospel land. But one thing is certain, 
whether we understand the minutia of their salvation or 
not, it can in no respect weaken our position and proof from 
the Bible, that Christ made an atonement for them as well 
as for us; and he who willed the salvation of all, certainly 
provided all that was necessary for its accomplishment, and 
imparts it on such condition as is best adapted to secure all 
the ends. Our position is also sustained by the gospel com- 
mission given by Christ to his first ministers, by the procla- 
mation of the angel made at the birth of the Saviour, by the 
promise which God made to Abraham, and by that which he 
made to Adam in Eden. He said to Adam that the seed 
of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, and to Abra- 
ham, in relation to the same thing, that in him all the fam- 
ilies of the earth should be blessed ; and Paul, speaking of 
that promise made to Abraham, says it was the gospel. 
Gal. in. 8 : " And the Scriptures, foreseeing that God would 
justify the heathen through faith, preached before the 
gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be 
blessed." And the same apostle informs us that this prom- 
ised seed was Christ, in whom all the nations of the earth 
were to be blessed. This is what the angel of God pro- 
claimed at the Saviour's birth, when he said, "Behold I 
bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all 
people; for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, 
a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." And the Lord said, 
" Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature," etc. All this proves that all nations, all people, 
and every creature were interested in the Saviour and his 
great salvation. We do not suppose that one man, or a small 
number of men, can personally address every man, yet we 
are compelled to think that the commission given by Christ 
to his called and sent ministers, is to preach that there is a 
possible salvation for every creature of Adam's race, and so 
far as they are permitted to preach the gospel to any people, 
they are most solemnly bound to preach it full and free to 
all and every one of them. And he who does not do it, but 



112 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

limits the atonement, not only disobeys his Lord and Master, 
but must be guilty of opposition to him, and sounds quite a 
different note from the angel who proclaimed good tidings 
of great joy to all people. In short, if Christ did not make 
a full and real atonement for Adam and all who fell in him, 
the angel of God made a great blunder, and the promise 
which the Lord made to Abraham, together with the com- 
mission given by Christ, are exceedingly embarrassing and 
well calculated to bewilder and mislead those who, like Cum- 
berland Presbyterians, cannot have that kind of vision 
which understands all nations, all people, and every creature 
only to mean a part of them, while the others were, by 
Heaven's own decrees and immutable plan, doomed to end- 
less ruin. We prefer, however, to be guided by the light of 
the Star of Bethlehem, the Holy Bible, and the commission 
of Christ, and preach the gospel to every creature, while 
others spend much of their time in attempts to explain and 
reconcile God's absolute and permissive decrees with the 
divine government and man's free agency, and wander off 
into unknown regions and endless swamps of human divin- 
ity, as chilling to themselves and as blighting to the world 
as the breath of the Sirocco. 

On decrees we have nothing directly to say in this place, 
having bestowed some attention to that subject in a former 
lecture. 

We shall continue the argument on the extent of the 
atonement. In all matters of controversy on points of doc- 
trine, it is deemed safe and fair to predicate our arguments 
and draw our conclusions from universally admitted facts, 
if such there are, which may legitimately be brought to bear 
upon the point in dispute. The doctrine of the resurrection 
may be mentioned as one of that class of Bible truths. That 
there will be a general resurrection of the human race, 
without the exception of one, and that such resurrection of 
the entire race is founded alone upon the resurrection of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, is as universally admitted as any doctrine 
taught in the Bible, and certainly so by all with whom we 
have any controversy on the extent of the atonement. This 
being admitted without controversy, we shall not attempt to 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 113 

prove in this place, but lay it down as an axiom in the argu- 
ment, that Christ did make a full and real atonement for all 
the world, and by it secured to all that measure of divine 
influence which is necessary to consummate their salvation 
in conformity with the plan of the gospel and man's free 
agency. All then will rise from the dead, both just and 
unjust, good and bad, great and small, rich and poor, bond 
and free. 

Next : this resurrection is alone founded upon, made cer- 
tain by the virtue and power of the resurrection of Christ, 
as proven by the Bible and admitted by all. The first thing, 
then, which we have to prove in the argument is that the 
resurrection of Christ entered into the nature of, and con- 
stituted part of, the redemption of the world, and is insep- 
arably connected with it. This appears so rational and 
scriptural as scarcely to demand proof, yet it may not be 
amiss to do so. Hos. xiii. 14 : "I will ransom them from 
the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from death : 
death, I will be thy plague : O grave, I will be thy destruc- 
tion: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." And isaiah 
says, "He will swallow up death in victory," etc. This is 
spoken of Christ, the world's Kedeemer, and of the ransom 
w T hich he paid for all nations. But Paul speaks so emphat- 
ically of the resurrection of Christ as constituting a very 
essential part of man's redemption, as to conclude that the 
world would be lost and ruined without it. Indeed, he 
makes it the pillar of truth, the soul of the gospel, and the 
hope of the world. Apart from it, there is no salvation, no 
hope, and no heaven for any one ; the gospel is worthless, 
preaching is false, faith is vain, and hope a delusion. All 
this is true of all men, if so be that Christ did not rise from 
the dead. But why all this general wreck, if the resurrec- 
tion of Christ had nothing to do in the work of atonement 
and redemption of man ? 1 Cor. xv. 14-18 : " But if there 
be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen : and 
if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your 
faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of 
God : because we have testified of God that he raised up 
Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise 



114 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and 
if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your 
sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are 
perished." The proof is full and clear that, aside from the 
resurrection of Christ, there is no atonement, no salvation 
for either soul or body, and no hope for the world — all are 
doomed. 

The next question to be considered is whether Christ rep- 
resented all in the grave and his resurrection from it, so as 
to bring about their resurrection, or only represented a part 
in his sufferings and death, thereby securing their destruc- 
tion without any possible salvation? Or, it may be stated 
thus : If all will rise by virtue of Christ's resurrection, is it 
not equally certain that the first died for them ? Now, the 
Bible knows no such theology as that which would cut up 
and divide Christ in such a way as to admit that he rose for 
all but only died for a part. It speaks of Christ as not being 
divided, and of his work of redemption as one undivided, 
harmonious whole. It will be seen that all are agreed in 
the truth of the general resurrection, and that too by virtue 
of the resurrection of Christ, which is virtually admitting 
that he rose for all, having first died for all, and there is no 
way of escape from that. The only way of escape from our 
conclusion is to prove that although Christ rose for all, he 
nevertheless did not die for all, which we think will hardly 
be attempted by any one. For wherever the Word of God 
speaks of the resurrection of Christ, it also speaks of his 
death in the same connection, and of both as being insepa- 
rably connected, and essentially necessary to the work of 
redemption. Hear Paul (Rom. xiv. 9) : " For to this end, 
Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be 
both Lord of the dead and the living." 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4 : " For 
I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, 
how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Script- 
ures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the 
third day, according to the Scriptures." We see, then, that 
he might be Lord of both the dead and living, or the Saviour 
of all. He both died and rose again ; died for all and rose 
for them, according to the Scriptures. We then take the 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 115 

position that if none rise from the dead but those for whom 
Christ rose, and that he rose for none for whom he did not 
first die ; that if it is true that all will rise, either to the 
resurrection of life or damnation (condemnation), it must 
follow, as a matter of course, that he died for all that will 
ever rise in the general resurrection. And if there should 
be any of all the race for whom he did not die and rise again, 
they will never rise, and if they never rise, they will never 
stand at the judgment seat of Christ. Such poor souls will 
neither be saved nor lost, for their salvation would be as 
impossible as their damnation would be unjust. When 
Christ bore the sins of the whole world in his body on the 
cross, he satisfied the. penalty of the law, it is true, but he 
achieved no victory until he rose from the dominions of 
death ; it was then that he conquered and swallowed up 
death in victory. And as his death and resurrection were 
both essentially necessary to complete his work of man's 
redemption, his resurrection from the dead is ample proof 
of the resurrection of all for whom he died and rose again ; 
and the number in both cases is just equal, and the one 
number proves the other; that is, the number that will rise 
in the general resurrection will prove beyond all controversy 
for whom Christ did die, for they will all be present at his 
judgment seat. As the doctrine of general atonement con- 
nects with the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of 
the world, so all these have a legitimate and proper connec- 
tion with the general and last judgment. We know 
from the Word of God that Christ will be the judge of all 
men, for it is written, " That the Father judgeth no man, 
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men 
should honor the Son, even as they honored the Father." 
And again, " We must all appear at the judgment seat of 
Christ." We are informed that God appointed this day. 
Acts xvii. 31 : " Because he hath appointed a day in the 
which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man 
whom he hath ordained, whereof he has given assurance 
unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." 
That day will come, for God hath appointed it, and the 
assurance which we have is the resurrection of Christ, as the 



116 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

text says, and, by consequence, ours. But we have still 
another witness of the fact, for the Holy Spirit, sent by the 
Son and operating through him, through the medium of his 
atonement, his death and resurrection, and to the very same 
extent, convinces all for whom he died and rose again, of sin, 
of righteousness, and of judgment to come. But as Christ 
will be the judge and righteousness the rule, how could he 
righteously pass the sentence of eternal condemnation upon 
any for whom he made no atonement, and who never had 
any special operations and awakenings of the Spirit? 
Would his blood appear against them when it was not shed 
for them? and would the righteous judge lay that to their 
charge as the cause of their condemnation? Surely not, for 
this would not be true, and the judge would know it and 
could not bring the charge, for the Lord cannot lie, as it is 
said, "Let God be true, but every man a liar." For what 
then could he condemn them ? Could he say that he called 
and they refused? that he stretched out his arm and they 
disregarded? or that he would have saved them but they 
would not — that they would not come unto him that they 
might have life ? How -could he, when he shed no blood for 
them and there was no life for them? Could they have life 
without Christ, and independent of him and his blood ? No; 
for they could not save themselves, and if Christ did not die 
for them it is certain that he would not. And eternal death, 
in such a case, would rather be a matter of necessity than 
otherwise. If there are such souls in all this lower world, 
their condition is very peculiar, for they are not and could 
not be prepared for heaven, unless it could be done inde- 
pendent of the atoning merits of Christ. And they could 
not be lit for and righteously sent to hell, for it would appear 
that they never slighted any of all the Lord's mercies, and 
could not neglect his great salvation. What would then 
become of them ? We know not, unless they would pass 
off into smoke, like that system of doctrine which teaches 
unconditional election and reprobation or a limited atone- 
ment. These are some of the difficulties which lie in the 
way of that sytem of doctrine, and hinder the success of the 
gospel of Christ. Christ, the judge of all the earth, will do 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 117 

right, and his judgments will be just, as we have said, and 
the righteous will be saved through his merits, and the 
wicked will be sent to perdition for rejecting that which 
saved the righteous, and for no other cause ; for the mangled 
body of Christ is athwart the pathway to hell, so to speak, 
and no one can reach that place without walking over the 
body of Christ and staining his feet with hallowed gore. 
Where there is no possible salvation for men, and no light 
to lead them to Christ, the only Saviour of sinners, there is 
no condemnation — there can be none; and although the 
Lord Jesus Christ will come to judge the world in righteous- 
ness, he never has as yet come for that purpose. His first 
mission into the world was to save men and not to destroy 
them, and this was the grand and gracious purpose for 
which his Father sent him. " For God sent not his Son into 
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through 
him might be saved." " And this is the condemnation, that 
light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather 
than light, because their deeds were evil."— r John in. 17, 19. 
And at the ninth verse of the first chapter it is said of 
Christ, the light spoken of, " That was the true light, which 
lighteth every man that cometh into the world ; " from 
which it is as clear as the sun in the heavens in a cloudless 
day, that the mercy-seat was first erected, and Christ was 
sent by his Father, and came for the gracious purpose of 
saving, or that the world through him might be saved ; and 
the true light shines every where in this world for that very 
purpose, and lighteth every man that cometh into the world, 
and no man of all this world will ever reach the judgment- 
seat of Christ without first passing by the mercy-seat; nor 
will he be condemned there and sentenced to hell but for his 
wilful rejection of pardon and eternal life fully offered 
in the name of Christ, and that rejection, too, with the 
true light first given to stir and excite his soul to its 
danger and best interests. The condemnation, or the 
just cause of it, is the rejection of the true light, which 
is God's true and real salvation, provided for and offered 
with all the sincerity of God, accompanied with his 
oath, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no 



118 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

pleasure in the death of the wicked. Turn, for why will 
ye die?" 

As still further proof, see John xn. 46-48 ; " I am come a 
light unto the world, that whosoever believeth on me, should 
not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and 
believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the 
world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and 
receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him : the 
word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the 
last day." " I am come a light into the world," etc. Christ 
is the light and life of the world, and whoever believeth in 
him shall not abide in darkness or perish, but have everlast- 
ing life. The word tuorld occurs three times in the above 
connection of Scripture, once in reference to light, once in 
reference to salvation, and once in reference to judgment, 
and in each place it is to be understood in its widest sense — 
to include all the race of man. The world finally to be 
judged by Christ is the same world that he came to enlighten 
and save, and he will judge none but such, is the plain sense 
of the connection. But he will not judge them now — that 
is not what he came for. His errand into the world was to 
save the world, and not to condemn it without light and the 
offer of life. For when he says, " If any man hear my 
words, and believe not, I judge him not," we are not to 
understand that he will never judge him or them, for that is 
plainly declared — he will judge the world in righteousness, 
but not until the appointed day. He first came to save, and 
now is the day of salvation, and to-day if ye hear his voice, 
harden not your hearts. Then he informs us who will be 
judged and condemned, in the last day, when the first, the 
day of grace, shall have closed, and the judgment day come, 
and by what rule. All those who reject him and receive not 
his word, which says he came to save, and not to judge and 
condemn them, will be judged by that solemn word of truth 
and condemned in the last day. " He that rejecteth me, and 
receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the 
word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the 
last day." And Paul says, "In the day when Grod shall 
judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 119 

gospel." — Rom. n. 16. We have seen, then, that there is to 
be no judgment day for this world which Christ did not 
come to save, and none will be condemned but those who 
reject him, and the justice in the case will be that the true 
light, which lighteth every man that comet h into the world, 
shone into their hearts, but they loved darkness and would 
not have Christ to reign over them. This is all plain, and 
as it ought to be. But as Paul speaks of the secrets of men 
being judged by Christ according to the gospel, we may be 
permitted to make a few remarks on that feature. 

Some have supposed that none of our race have any thing 
to do with the gospel of Christ to whom it is not preached 
in word or letter, and that such will neither be saved nor 
condemned according to it. This, however, must be an 
error, for all are either saved or lost according to the gospel, 
and according to it will finally be justified or condemned 
when God shall judge the secrets of men according to it. 
Infants are saved according to the gospel, both in this and 
in all other lands. And certainly it has much to do where 
the letter of it has never been, and in many ways. The 
gospel is good news, and has its letter and form of words, 
and also its saving grace and power, and these are not insep- 
arably connected so as that the one cannot operate without 
the other; for the grace can, and doubtless does, save in 
many cases without the letter, where it never has been 
preached. Now, as it is altogether possible for the grace 
and saving power of the gospel to be where the letter is not, 
we conclude that it extends all over this world and to every 
creature, and that God will judge the secrets of all hearts 
according to that fact — according to the grace of it. Christ 
says, "My words are spirit and life." And in Acts xx. 24, 
it is called the gospel of the grace of God; and in the 
Epistle to Titus we are informed that this grace hath 
appeared to all men — n. 11,12: " For the grace of God, 
that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men ; teaching 
us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should 
live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." 
God loved the world and sent his Son to die for it, and 
Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man. 



120 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

This shows that God's grace is as wide as the world, and 
this is the grace of the gospel. One thing more. The Holy 
Spirit reproves the world (if our Lord's word has been 
fulfilled) of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; teaching 
us that we should forsake sin, become righteous, and prepare 
for death and judgment by a holy and godly life. It is the 
Spirit, then, that brings conviction and salvation near, even 
to every man's heart — it hath appeared to all men, etc. By 
this great plan of grace the world will be judged, and either 
acquitted and saved or condemned and cursed, according to 
Christ's word — his everlasting gospel. Some men have 
supposed that they bring salvation to the people. This, 
however, is not true. They only publish the news of salva- 
tion ; the thing was there before by virtue of the death of 
Christ and the presence of the Spirit, and in this way alone 
can it ever get there in due time and find its way into the 
heart of any one. This is true, however certain it is that 
God works through human instrumentality. In the judg- 
ment, all who fell in Adam and were redeemed by Christ 
will rise and appear before the judgment-seat of him who 
died for them and rose again, and while he will own and 
bless those souls washed and made white in his blood, he 
will be a swift witness against those who rejected him and 
his great salvation ; that he did really die for them and 
would have saved them but they would not — they would not 
come to him that they might have life. 
We set out to prove — 

1. The vicarious nature of the atonement, and that Christ 
died in our room and stead ; and, 

2. The extent of it — that this was done for all men. 

In both cases, we think all has been proven which could 
be desired to substantiate the fact that Christ died for the 
whole world, and we have the comfort to believe that there 
exists nothing to the contrary in all the volume of divine 
truth. 

As to the doctrine of decrees and unconditional election 
and reprobation, as taught in the schools, that system pre- 
sents nothing with a thus-saith-the-Lord, to weaken our 
position in the least; for it has in its own elements self- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 121 

destruction, and contradicts itself on the one hand and the 
Bible on the other. When the Bible says Christ, by the 
grace of God, tasted death for every man — died for the 
whole world; that God will have all men to be saved and 
come unto a knowledge of the truth; that God has no 
pleasure in the death of the wicked ; that system says he 
only died for a part, neither did he die for any others; that 
some were ordained to death; that God has no grace for 
them; that he would not have them come unto a knowledge 
of the truth, and that he has pleasure in their death, and in 
his good will and pleasure decreed, ordained them to wrath, 
and that from eternity. Then it contradicts itself by saying 
that God sent these reprobates to hell for their sins, and that 
it is their own fault that they are damned; that they might 
have come to Christ if they would ; that they had one kind 
of ability to come and another kind to stay away, etc. As 
we have paid some attention to this subject in a former 
lecture, we shall say no more in this place, but let it meet 
its fate at the judgment-seat if not before. The brethren 
who hold it we love, but not that part of their doctrine, and 
many of them would doubtless rejoice to attend its funeral, 
and unite with others in sounding salvation free and full to 
the world, on earth peace, good will to men. For behold I 
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; 
for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, 
which is Christ the Lord. And he, by the grace of God, tasted 
death for every man. 

In the argument we have shown that God could not will 
that all men should be saved and come unto the knowledge 
of the truth, and not will the remedy for its accomplishment, 
and fully open up the way for them to come to Christ; and 
that it is as possible for him to will (or decree) two opposites, 
or their life and death, at the same time, as that he could 
will that they should be saved when there was an irrevocable 
decree that they should be damned. It has also been shown 
that in whatever sense God loved the world and gave his 
Son and sent him into it, that it was as much for the whole 
as for any one or part of the whole, and that so far as the 
Scriptures of divine truth go to speak of Christ as having 
8 



122 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

suffered for sins, they do fully testify that it was for the sins 
of all men with the same force, and that we have as much 
authority from the Bible to say that Christ never died for 
any man as that he did not taste death for every man. And, 
moreover, that the Bible, with all its doctrines, can with as 
much propriety and consistency be rejected by the gross as 
false, as that part of its teachings which so plainly states 
that he tasted death for every man and would have all to be 
saved, etc., etc. We have endeavored to be plain in the 
argument, showing that all the world is guilty before God 
and under the curse of his law, and that none are exempt ; 
and that Christ was made of a woman — made under this 
very same law to redeem them ; yes, all that were under it 
and cursed by it, from its curse, as the word of God declares ; 
proving, of course, that the number of sinners of the race 
under its curse was precisely the number that was redeemed. 
It has also been shown that Paul understood and taught the 
doctrine of general atonement to be undisputed in his day, 
and laid it down as his axiom in the argument, to prove from 
it universal depravity or that all were dead, and makes the 
number equal in both respects, and says if one died for all 
then were all dead. Now, his rule will work well both ways 
as it regards the number. See, then, if one died for all, then 
all were dead. That is now proven and given up. Then, in 
the next place, if the number for which he died was the 
entire all — all that were dead — and his death for all proves 
any thing in showing that all were dead, it certainly shows 
that the very same all proven to be dead by Christ's death, is 
the very same all for whom he died. And if he died for all, 
then were all dead, and if all were dead, then he died for all. 
In the argument on divine influence, we have shown that 
all men come into existence through the medium of Christ, 
and the interest which they have in him as their mediator. 
Their very existence would have been the greatest curse 
which God could have inflicted upon them if there had been no 
personal salvation for their souls. But that Christ, who is the 
author of their being, died to redeem them and rose again for 
their justification, and sent the Spirit into all the world to 
convict them of sin, etc., and to afford them a full and fair 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 123 

opportunity of being saved; that his influence and light are 
coextensive with the race, and that on their way to the 
judgment-seat of Christ, all who will ever stand there of 
Adam's race are met by his awakening power and convinced 
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, that they may 
prepare for that day. In presenting our argument to prove 
the extent of the atonement, from the resurrection of Christ, 
we have endeavored to show that there is a connection 
between the general judgment, the general resurrection 
of all men, and the death and resurrection of Christ, and 
between Christ and this world. So tbat our connection with 
Christ in this sense, connects us with his death and resurrec- 
tion, with a day of grace, with the general resurrection, and 
finally with the general judgment where we must all 
appear. That the life of Christ prepared the way for his 
death', his death prepared the way for his resurrection, and 
that prepared the way for the general resurrection, and the 
general resurrection prepared the way for the general judg- 
ment; and these are all general items. General atonement, 
general resurrection, and general judgment; and all that 
will be there of Adam's race (and all will), will be first 
resurrected; all who will rise will be raised by virtue of the 
resurrection of Christ, and our connection with him and his 
death and resurrection, for he is the resurrection, as he says 
himself. Then we proved from the fact that as the death 
and resurrection of Christ are inseparably connected in the 
work of man's redemption, that if we were so far connected 
with him as our mediator between us and God as his resur- 
rection brought about ours, we were as certainly interested 
in the one as in the other — in his death as in his resurrection. 
And, finally, that the proof of Christ having made an atone- 
ment for all men is as good as the proof that all men will 
die, and after that be resurrected and judged by Jesus 
Christ, and they stand or fall together; and, finally, those 
who are saved will be saved, soul and body, by virtue of the 
death and resurrection of Christ, and all who are condemned 
and damned, will be damned, soul and body, because they 
neglected the salvation of both, by neglecting him who died 
and rose again. The law of love, the moral law, will be the 



124 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

standard of holiness, and the righteousness of Christ the 
measure of perfection, and the grace of the gospel the 
efficiency of salvation in the saved on the right hand, and 
the rejection of it the just cause of the damnation of those 
on the left hand of the Judge ; and all will be right, having 
turned on their own agency. Let us feel this doctrine in 
our hearts, live it, and preach it while we live, and God will 
bless us and own our ministry, and sooner or later this 
doctrine will spread all over this lower world, and, with 
God's blessing, bring about the glory and splendor of the 
millennial day. 



SECTION III. 



LECTURE VIII.— ON PRAYER. 

Prayer is a request made for favors and mercies by 
dependent creatures to the Giver of all good, or the offering 
up of the desires of the heart to God. It is not only a duty 
but a very high privilege, and constitutes an important part 
in the worship of God, without which there can be no 
acceptable service in his sight. It is the duty and privilege 
of all to pray. Christ prayed and taught his disciples to 
pray. " Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." — 
Luke xviii. 1. "I will therefore that men pray everywhere, 
lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting." — 1 Tim. 
ii. 8. And James says, " The effectual fervent prayer of 
a righteous man availeth much." — James v. 16. The duty 
and utility of this part of religious worship are everywhere 
taught in the Sacred Scriptures. 

1. The Object of Prayer. — God is the object of prayer. 
It is to be addressed to him through Jesus Christ his Son. 
This will be seen in that form of prayer which Christ taught 
his disciples, where he says, " Our Father which art in 
heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be 
done, as in heaven, so in earth." Prayer offered to any of all 
God's creatures is the very essence of idolatry, and a sin of the 
greatest magnitude. Nor is God to be approached in prayer 
through the medium and mediation of any one of all his 
creatures, but through that of his uncreated Son. Prayer 
addressed to either person of the Godhead is scripturally 
directed, for as much as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 
are one, and not three Gods. The more that is known of 
God by the supplicant, the wiser may his petitions be. But 

(125) 



126 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

if we assume that success in prayer depends upon our 
knowledge of God, further than barely to know that he is, 
and that he is the rewarder of all who diligently seek him, 
our assumption may be most perilous to religion; because 
we know not the standard of knowledge, but are bound to 
admit that the wisest know but little of the Almighty, and 
may utter many things in prayer which need the commisera- 
tion of our Heavenly Father to pardon the error of the 
head while he accepts the offering of the heart. 

2. The Matter of Prayer and the Form of Prayer may be 
taken together. The Lord's prayer contains the best matter 
and presents the best form known to the world. It is both 
short and plain, and yet it covers the whole scope of prayer 
as to form and substance. The publican who said, " God 
be merciful to me a sinner," prayed acceptably before the 
Lord. No one can reasonably object to appropriate words, 
sound sentiment, and good arrangement in prayer, yet it 
may be well not to overlook the spirit of prayer, which it 
is to be feared is often done in our attention to forms. Not 
unfrequently the attention bestowed to the matter and form 
of prayer is for the gratification of the flesh, and more to 
please a fastidious carnal world than God, who looks more 
to the heart than to forms. Prayer in public ought to be 
in matter, form, and spirit, just what it is in secret, where 
none but God sees and hears. It is possible for God to be 
mocked with well-arranged, beautiful prayers, which are 
more for self and the applause of the world than for the 
honor of God and his blessings. Doubtless pride has much 
to do with what is called prayer. Pride may prompt men 
to make a display before their fellow-men to the displeasure 
of God, or it may restrain them from prayer because they 
cannot pray in due form like others. In the scriptural form 
and matter of prayer there can be but little variety, without 
a departure from the teachings of Jesus Christ, who pre- 
sented to his disciples an embodiment of both matter and 
form in one short prayer. In this we are taught that God 
is our Father; that we are helpless, needy, and dependent 
and to look to him for all things with confidence and resig- 
nation, being willing to forgive others as we would be 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 127 

forgiven. If we can realize ourselves as standing in 
the immediate presence of God, and can realize how we 
would pray, being so circumstanced, this may teach us best 
how we ought to pray at all times, as to matter, form, and 
spirit. Those prayers which flow from an honest heart 
are doubtless the most pleasing and acceptable with God, 
regardless of the form or language in which they may be 
expressed. 

3. Social and Public Prayer. — " I exhort therefore, that 
first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving 
of thanks, be made for all men — for kings, and for all that 
are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable 
life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and 
acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour ; who will have 
all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the 
truth." — 1 Tim.* ii. 1-4. Prayer is to be made for all men, 
even for kings and rulers, and the reasons assigned for it are 
twofold. First, " that we may live a quiet and peaceable life 
in all godlines and honesty ; " and, second, " because it is 
the will of God our Saviour that all men should be saved 
and come unto the knowledge of the truth." Public and 
social prayer has influence upon ourselves and others, the 
blessings of God our Heavenly Father being invoked upon 
all in the spirit of Christian kindness and charity. All are 
impressed with the precious truth that we all have one 
Father, who cares for all and has rich blessings to bestow 
upon all. This sentiment entertained and expressed in 
fervent prayer, tends to overthrow prejudice, bigotry, and 
selfishness, and to promote brotherly love, which is the very 
essence of the Christian religion. Those who do not pray 
for others as well as themselves, do not pray according to the 
will of God and the spirit of Jesus Christ, for he prayed for 
his enemies. And it may be well to ask ourselves why 
social prayer does not at all times avail, as it manifestly did 
on the day of Pentecost when the Lord God of sabaoth 
hearkened and heard, and sent down holy influences upon 
the assembled and assembling multitude. Is it because the 
fountain of his grace has become exhausted ? or has he 
changed in his purposes of mercy and good will to men ? 



128 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Neither of the above can be true, " for the same Lord is 
rich unto all that call upon him ; " " he is the same yester- 
day, and to-day, and forever, and his mercy endureth for- 
ever." The true causes, therefore, of all failures in prayer 
must be, first, a want of full confidence in God ; and, second, 
a want of the spirit of Jesus Christ. " "We are told that we 
must have faith in God, and when we pray, we must believe 
that we receive the things we ask for, and we shall have 
them ; " for James says, " Ye ask and receive not, because 
ye ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts." 
Prayer should be offered up in full confidence in God that 
he will perform all his promises, and where two or three 
meet together for prayer they should agree and be of one 
heart and mind in their supplications before the mercy-seat. 
But the true spirit of prayer must be felt and exercised, 
which is that of forgiveness. We must forgive others their 
trespasses if we would be forgiven ours, and if we would be 
blessed of the Lord we must honestly ask his blessing upon 
others, even our enemies ; " for if we forgive not, neither 
will our Heavenly Father forgive us our trespasses." We 
cannot, therefore, have confidence that the Lord will hear 
our prayers so long as we entertain any other than good 
will toward all men, for Christ prayed for his vile enemies 
and crucifiers, and if we would be heard when we approach 
God in prayer we must bring our hearts to that rule. He 
who approaches God in prayer with malice in his heart 
toward his brethren and fellow-men is a monster of inso- 
lence, and might as soon expect the Holy One to change 
and falsify his word as to expect any blessing from his hand. 
No one may have any reasonable and scriptural confidence 
in God that he will answer his prayers, who does not exer- 
cise the spirit of forgiveness and good will to all men ; for 
the Lord's prayer directs us to look for the same measure 
of forgiveness which we extend to others. 

4. Family Prayer. — This is patriarchal and of vast impor- 
tance to the general cause of Christianity, as its tendency is 
to promote religion in private families, and to impart to 
children and domestics early and proper training. If fam- 
ilies of children have any guardian angels on earth who 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 129 

may reasonably be expected to care for their souls, surely 
none are so likely to have this momentous charge as parents, 
the Heaven-appointed heads of families. The first impres- 
sions made upon the tender mind in its first developments 
are made by parents if they attend to their duty, and these 
impressions, when deepened by family devotion, are the most 
abiding and give direction to all after-life, and only expand 
and deepen with its maturity. He who has no heart to pray 
in his family cannot be very devout, and although he may 
claim to be a Christian, his careless and inconsistent life 
may even lead his children to doubt the sincerity of his 
pretensions. Infidels are moulded and receive their infidel 
cast in the family circle more frequently than anywhere else, 
for, notwithstanding some vile infidels have claimed pious 
parents, we have reason to doubt the justice and truth of 
their claim, as we are fully persuaded of the truth of God : 
" Train up a child when he is young, in the way he should 
go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." It is 
remarkable that where parents have lived up to their profes- 
sion and trained their children in the fear of the Lord, that 
although they may have forgotten it for a time and neglected 
God, the recollection of the family altar, prayers, and 
parental counsel will rouse up the dormant powers of the 
soul along the journey of life to ward off the ensnaring 
meshes of infidelity. The fervent prayers and patriarchal 
devotions of our sires will live longer, and excite us more 
and better, than all else on earth, and while we may lose 
confidence in all the world beside, how can we doubt the 
sincerity of our guardian angel whose prayers oft wafted 
our case to the listening ear of God for mercy. It has been 
questioned whether family prayer is a duty made such by 
any explicit command in the Word of God. This, however, 
may be confidently affirmed, that none who delight in prayer 
and the worship of God at any time or place can lightly 
esteem family religion or deny themselves such a high priv- 
ilege, when not forbidden, though it were not positively 
commanded, and he who neglects it must be a stupid, indo- 
lent sluggard in the Church at best. There are some things 
in religion which are not commanded in so many words, 



130 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

such as female communion, and the reason is at once appar- 
ent, the thing being so universally right and expedient, and 
entering into the very nature of religion, and addressing 
itself at once to every well regulated mind, it was unneces- 
sary to command its observance to such as love God. And 
he who neglects family prayer for the want of a specific 
command must be a cold-hearted professor, and will be 
found to manifest but little zeal in the performance of that 
which has been fully commanded and demonstrated. Christ, 
however, taught that we are to pray, " Give us day by day, 
or day after day, our daily bread," " and that men ought 
always to pray without weariness or fainting." 

5. Secret Prayer. — This is attended to by withdrawing 
from the multitude to some secret place for prayer where 
none but God sees and hears. " But thou, when thou pray- 
est, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, 
pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father which 
seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." — Matt. Vi. 6. 
Christ oft prayed in secret and taught his disciples the 
necessity and utility of secret devotion, which none who 
love and revere him can dispense with. It is here that all 
the secrets of the heart are entered into and fully spread out 
before him who seeth in secret, with upretending and child- 
like simplicity. And it is here that Christians make their 
nearest approaches to the throne of grace and feel more of 
the divine presence than anywhere else, because their 
prayers are offered without ostentation or restraint. Chris- 
tians who pray much in secret may be known in the public 
assembly by their devotions and enjoyments there, for God 
rewards them openly. They have an unction in their devo- 
tions which is peculiar to the heavenly-minded, who live 
near to God and are oft in communion with him. Secret 
prayer is the life of devotion and the true secret of the 
success of Christianity, and constitutes the distinguishing 
mark between the heavenly-minded Christian and the lifeless 
formalist, and wherever it is neglected religion dwindles 
into a cold and dead formality, which invariably results in 
an undue attachment to the ceremonies of religion. 

6. How can Prayer influence Him who is immutable to bestow 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 131 

Blessings which would not otherwise be Conferred? — It has been 
assumed that he who knows all the wants of his creatures, 
and has provided for all their necessities in the remedial 
system upon sovereign, gracious principles, needs not to be 
informed of their wants nor invoked for his mercies, but 
that he will bestow them according to his gracious purpose 
as truly without as with prayer. And, furthermore, it has 
been supposed that if God were to grant anything in 
answer to prayer which would not be given without it, it 
would not only evince mutability in his character and plans, 
but would render his purposes uncertain, by suspending 
them upon human agency. The same objections, in sub- 
stance, which in this place are urged against prayer have 
for like reasons been urged against the whole scope of human 
agency and effort under the remedial system. And while 
the use of prayer and other means have not in all cases been 
repudiated as unnecessary but admitted, the assumption is 
that he who appointed the end with infallible certainty, has 
also ordained and connected the means with the end, both 
alike under the absolute control of his own sovereign agency, 
and equally certain of accomplishment. It must be admitted 
that God has appointed means for the accomplishment of 
great ends, and has promised his blessings to those who use 
them, but he has nowhere pledged himself to coerce his 
creature man into the use of such means, but has left him 
to his own volition, either to use them or not to use them 
as he may choose, and upon this rests his responsibility. 
God may in his good pleasure will to give us large blessings 
which he may never confer upon us. This will appear most 
manifest when we consider that he has ordained means to 
be used by us as conditions upon which he grants his favors. 
If we ask in prayer it is what he has purposed as our duty 
and privilege, and it is his will to hear and answer us in 
mercy, but if we ask not we receive not, while at the same 
time God does not change. He remains the same, and it is 
all the while his will to give in answer to prayer, but not 
otherwise. If our Heavenly Father withholds good from us 
when we are pray erless and bestows it when we return to 
duty, it is not because he did not know all our wants before 






132 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

we asked his mercies, nor is it true that our prayers change 
his mind, for this was his mind all the while. Hence, we 
see that prayer neither enlightens nor changes his mind, but 
it proves that he will not change his mind or plan, though 
we should suffer and perish. When the prodigal son wan- 
dered from his father's house and wasted all in a foreign 
land and was sorely pinched with famine, his father, who 
loved and kindly embraced him at his return, was not 
changed in his good will toward him by his penitential 
entreaties, but his gracious heart yearned over him in his 
wanderings and willed to bestow upon him the bounties of 
his house, and when the son returned and his father received 
him with joy and gladness of heart, it was just what the 
father had willed to do from the first. And although his 
father would not have blessed him if he had not returned, 
yet it was his will to do so, though he had starved in foreign 
lands. God is immutably good and wills to do us good, but 
he will not change from his plan, which is to give in answer 
to prayer. " Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye 
shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." " For 
every one that asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, find- 
eth ; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or 
what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will 
give him a stone ? or if he ask a fish, will give him a ser- 
pent ? If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts 
unto your children, how much more shall your Father 
which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask 
him?"— Matt. vn. 7-11. 

7. The Use and Instrumentality of Prayer. — The most 
weighty of all reasons why we ought to pray is the very fact 
that God, who is immutable and the giver of all good, has 
ordained the use and instrumentality of prayer. This 
instrumentality is part of his plan and most clearly evinces 
the high responsibility of dependent creatures. The Bible 
nowhere intimates that our Heavenly Father will bestow his 
gifts upon us unasked, but the teaching is that we are to ask 
and receive, seek and we shall find. If such is our Father's 
plan, and he has ordained the use of prayer, his immuta- 
bility constitutes the best of all reasons why we should never 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 133 

expect anything without the use of prayer. It may fairly 
be questioned whether any mercies and blessings are or ever 
have been bestowed upon this world except in answer to 
prayer. If there is one, that certainly was the gift of Jesus 
Christ our Redeemer. But it will be seen that such a gift 
as that lies out beyond our time and the employment of our 
agency, and might well be an exception, being classed with 
impossibilities. Those who have scriptural views of God 
and his administrations never think of changing him by 
prayer. They would not desire any change in him. A 
liability to change would interrupt their devotions and 
hinder their prayers. But knowing that he is without 
variableness or shadow of turning, and that he ever has 
been desirous to hearken to prayer and to open the windows 
of heaven in gracious answers, their hearts are filled with 
confidence and their faith takes hold of God. Prayer is 
altogether the most efficient and powerful instrumentality 
that ever has been or ever can be used in the Church for the 
conversion of the world. It moves the hand that moves 
the world, and becomes in this sense omnipotent. God is 
omnipresent and hears at all times and places, and never 
fails in one single instance. If there ever was anything 
devoutly asked in prayer, and that very thing was not granted, 
it was only because it was not best, but something else 
more appropriate and superior in kind was given in its stead. 
God withholds no good thing from such as walk uprightly. 
Much that is denominated prayer is not prayer, and never 
reaches the divine ear. The reading of prayers composed 
by others, to say the least of it, is a marvelously strange 
exercise for any Christian people. It may be done — that is 
possible — with devout feelings, yet one pressed with his sins 
and wants like the publican, who smote upon his breast, 
saying, God be merciful to me a sinner, has but little use for 
a written form of prayer. His soul gushes out in direct 
supplication to God for mercy. And devout Christians who 
have the spirit of Jesus Christ, find a more ready access to 
the throne of grace than to read prayers. They have the 
spirit of prayer in their hearts, written there by the Spirit 
of the living God, which ascends to him without delay. 



134 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

God may be mocked or insulted with well-written prayers 
read in his presence, when the heart is unmoved and as cold 
as the regions of eternal snow. Prayer, to open the win- 
dows of heaven and bring blessings down from our Father, 
must come from the heart. Such only are fervent, effectual 
prayers, and come up before the throne with favor. 

8. The Effect of Prayer upon the Church and the World. — 
God who ordained prayer as one of the most efficient and 
powerful agencies for good in the Church, has promised to 
answer prayer and never has failed to perform his word. 
Prayer offered to God for ourselves only and not for others, 
is selfish and not of that benevolent kind which moved the 
bosom of the Son of God. Influenced by the true spirit of 
prayer, there is a feeling of forgiveness to enemies and good 
will to the race which meets with the divine approbation. 
Prayer for others is sure to be answered in the right way. 
Though it may be well to notice that our Father in heaven 
in his administrations never coerces any of his responsible 
creatures in any way, so as to subdue their will and bring 
them into submission irrespective of their agency, neverthe- 
less in answer to prayer they are brought to see and feel 
their true condition and real wants. At this point their 
own volition is consulted, and on it every thing turns at last 
for good or evil to themselves. In other words, no prayers 
can or will be answered in any way to dispense with our 
own prayers and free agency. Prayer offered in faith is 
answered in the enlightenment and conviction of sinners, 
but in their conversion to God, their own hearts must take 
action and come to Christ by faith in his name. The plan 
of salvation requires this, and God will not violate his own 
established regulations in answer to prayer or any other 
agency. This shows the necessity of action in all, and that 
whenever we pray for others, or they pray for us, we must 
pray for ourselves and them also. This brings about the right 
kind of feeling in the Church of Jesus Christ, and promotes 
the spirit of Christian unity and brotherly love. ~No one, 
however, may expect to be saved in answer to prayer because 
friends implore the divine goodness in their behalf, unless 
they themselves pray also. It is to be feared that some have 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 135 

presumed upon the goodness of G-od in the salvation of their 
souls, from the consideration that prayers go up to the ears 
of the Lord for them from many Christian hearts and pious 
parents, and they cannot and will not be lost. This, how- 
ever, is a deception. It is a refuge of lies, for God has not 
so promised. We may be greatly aided by others, but we 
must act for ourselves or we never can enter into life. The 
weighty responsibility, after all, must and will rest upon 
each one for himself, and nowhere else. Prayers offered to 
God for others will result in good somewhere, though the 
special object of them may finally sink to perdition. The 
blessing of Heaven will finally descend upon the head of the 
devout suppliant. Prayer has never been offered to God in 
vain. Every devout prayer since the world began has been 
and now stands recorded in heaven. 

9. Whom to Pray. — It has been thought by some that the 
unconverted are not to pray, and that the Lord will not 
regard such prayers. This sentiment, however, is contra- 
dicted by the Scriptures, and also by the universal experience 
of Christians — God's regenerated people. The Bible no- 
where forbids prayer, and who of all the Lord's regenerated 
family does not well remember that he prayed, and was at 
the time of his conversion pouring out his soul to God in 
earnest supplication? Paul prayed from the time he was 
smitten until the light of God's countenance beamed into 
his soul; the jailer prayed, and Peter commanded Simon 
the Sorceror to pray to God, whose heart at the time was 
not right in his sight — he was a wicked man. The very 
idea is a strange inconsistency, and sets up an opposing 
barrier to religion at the very threshhold of mercy and free 
grace. How are the ungodly ever to become any better? 
Are they to wait in sin and open rebellion against God until 
he renews them by sovereign grace, and never seek or ask 
for mercy until he changes their hearts ? This is manifestly 
a license to continue in sin, and never make one struggle for 
the narrow way of life until God plants them upon the great 
rock. There can be no reason given why all men every 
where ought not to pray, other than a mere hypothetical 
myth, that no prayers are acceptable to the Lord which are 



136 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

not prompted by pure love to God. This notion is opposed 
by every call in the Bible given to sinners to repent, and by 
the universal voice of all who have ever repented and found 
the Lord precious. No sentiment can be sound, and no one 
a promoter of the cause of truth who in any way opposes 
prayer. It is a solemn duty and the most precious of all 
privileges, for which Grod should have our devout thanks 
forever and ever. Pray without ceasing, and in every thing 
give thanks. 



, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 137 



LECTURE IX.— THE DOCTRINE OF REPENT- 
ANCE. 



This doctrine holds an important place among others in the 
system of truth, and was inculcated by John, and by Christ 
and his apostles, and all true ministers who have followed 
after, as well as those who preceded them ; and wherever the 
gospel is preached and life and salvation are offered to the 
people, repentance is urged upon their consideration. Much 
depends upon a correct definition of repentance and its office 
work in the plan of salvation in order to a correct under- 
standing of the doctrine. It does not appear that Christ and 
his apostles made any protracted and tedious comments upon 
it as though it were so intricate as not to be sufficiently un- 
derstood by the people without it. From which it may be 
safely inferred that it has been rather enveloped in clouds 
since that time by those who have undertaken to expound it. 
If so, the wisest course will be to return to the original source 
for the true light and seek it in the Scriptures of divine truth. 
Doubtless the learning and labors of men have rendered a 
valuable service to the world, and afforded many facilities the 
better to apprehend the doctrines of the cross; yet it will not 
be denied that such agencies have in some instances advocated 
vile errors and been productive of vast mischief to souls. 
Whether repentance is prior to faith, or succeeds it as a fruit 
of it, or whether it is both legal and evangelical, or altogether 
evangelical, are questions which have been warmly debated 
and not yet decided ; nor have I the vanity to suppose that I 
will settle the question. I only promise an honest effort to 
follow the leadings of God's word. 

I shall here define repentance in a general sense, to be sor- 
row and reformation arising from conviction, reserving to 
myself the right to elucidate further as I progress. In giving 
10 






138 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

repentance its place in the system of truth, it can not be 
found altogether before faith nor altogether after it. The 
field which it occupies is wide. There is a repentance which 
is peculiar to Christians and which none but regenerated per- 
sons are exercised with, and there is a repentance peculiar to 
sinners before regeneration, and which all Christians are the 
subjects of before they are justified and have any evidence of 
their acceptance with God through his Son. There is a faith 
peculiar to the unconverted and which in and of itself never 
leads to Christ. Another step is important. Christ said, " Ye 
believe in God, believe also in me." The first degree of faith 
may believe all the truths contained in the sacred Scriptures, 
and the subject of it perish forever, unless Christ be received 
and trusted in alone for salvation. But the last degree of 
faith is preceded by the first, and the last degree of repentance 
is also preceded by the first degree, and the first degrees of 
repentance and faith are associated together. But the first 
degree of faith seems to have the priority of all and to take 
the first step. " For he that would come to God must believe 
that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them who diligently 
seek him." 

Repentance may be divided into legal and evangelical. 
Legal repentance is that which precedes justification, and 
evangelical succeeds and is peculiar to Christians; the former 
is before and the latter after regeneration. This distinction 
is not admitted by all to be correct, for there are those who 
assume that all true repentance which avails any thing is 
evangelical. Such, however, also assume that regeneration 
precedes all true repentance and is at once the sovereign cause 
of it, and that no one ever repents before he is made a new 
creature in Christ. This was taught by Calvin, and is yet 
held by all that school of divines to this day. Calvin says, 
" In one word I apprehend repentance to be regeneration, the 
end of which is the restoration of the divine Image within us, 
which was defaced and almost obliterated by the transgres- 
sion of Adam." Again, " "Wherefore in this regeneration we 
are restored by the grace of Christ to the righteousness of 
God, from which we fell in Adam ; in which manner the Lord 
is pleased completely to restore all those whom he adopts to 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 139 

the inheritance of life. And this restoration is not accom- 
plished in a single moment, or day, or year ; but by continued 
and sometimes even tardy advances." — Inst., vol. I., book 3, 
chap, in, pp. 541, 542. That this system of doctrine may have 
its due, see Book n, chap, in, pp. 276, 277, where the writer 
adopts the sentiments of Augustine, " That grace is not merely 
offered by the Lord to be either received or rejected according 
to the free choice of each individual, but that it is grace which 
produces both the choice and the will in the heart; so that 
every subsequent good work is the fruit and effect of it and 
that it is obeyed by no other will but that which it has pro- 
duced." In the above we have a true exposition of evangelical 
repentance according to Calvinists, which in the creeds is 
denominated an evangelical grace, because it is assumed by 
them, that grace upon absolute principles first regenerates 
the heart and repentance follows as a fruit of the Spirit from 
a new heart. Grace, we are informed, is not offered to be 
either received or rejected, but the heart and will are first re- 
newed before either repentance or faith, which is further 
demonstrated by the following : " These two things are clearly 
signified, that the Lord corrects our depraved will, or rather 
removes it, and of himself introduces a good one in its place." — 
Pp. 269. To me it appears very hazardous to deny to man 
any and all responsibility in accepting or rejecting Jesus 
Christ and the grace of his gospel under the misguided zeal 
of a heated imagination to prove that salvation is altogether 
of grace, when there is ample room to establish both salvation 
by grace and the agency of man without detriment to either. 
I have no tenacity for the division of repentance into legal 
and evangelical only as it relates to man's agency before justi- 
fication and regeneration, which seems to be somewhat 
different from that which follows after. But if any one should 
choose to call it all evangelical simply because the Holy Spirit 
produces conviction for sin in the heart, I will not object; 
provided, however, it is not assumed that such illumination 
is at the same time regeneration, and is admitted that such 
illumination is sufficient to enable the subject of it to repent 
before his heart and will are renewed. The distinction I 
wish to make between legal and evangelical repentance is, 



140 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

that the former is the exercise of a convicted sinner trembling 
under the curse of the divine law and seeking relief in Christ; 
while evangelical repentance is that sorrow which God's chil- 
dren feel for their improprieties, accompanied with amendment 
of life. In the first case there is a dread of hell; in the latter 
there is sorrow as when a loving child has offended a benefi- 
cent father. Faith is connected with both with this distinction. 
That which is antecedent and connects with legal repentance 
may be denominated assent, or a simple belief of the truth to 
some extent; evangelical, or saving faith, is reliance or trust 
in Christ for salvation, which follows legal repentance, and is 
the instrument of justification and eternal life. The illumi- 
nation of the Spirit attends the first degrees of faith, and 
repentance, but leaves the will free in its action either to 
receive or reject Christ; nor is it withdrawn until the 
awakened reject the Son of God. As repentance of both 
kinds appears to be impracticable without the light of the 
Spirit, it may be useful to remember the Lord's promise, "I 
will pour out my spirit upon all flesh." "This is the true 
light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." 
Christ himself preached repentance to the Jews, saying, Ex- 
cept ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. And he commanded 
repentance to be preached to all. " And that repentance and 
remission of sins should be preached in his name among all 
nations, beginning at Jerusalem." — Luke xxiv. 47. And 
Paul said to the Athenians, " And the times of this ignorance 
God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to 
repent." — Acts xvn. 30. When God commanded a thing to 
be done in his name he ought to be the best judge of its pro- 
priety and practicability, and surely no one may indulge in 
such temerity as to say that a compliance without grace is 
impossible; and at the same time charge him with a failure 
to impart it, on the bare supposition that if he were to do so 
all would repent. But the assumption of those who hold that 
repentance is the fruit of regeneration is that it is not the will 
of God that all men should repent, for if it were he would give 
the grace and consummate his will in their salvation. Hence, 
under the influence of one idea, they make every thing bow to 
the sovereignty of a fondly cherished opinion. If, as Calvin 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 141 

says, " repentance is regeneration," or regeneration on 
sovereign principles produces it, then we are compelled to 
measure every thing else by this rule, and conclude with him 
that while it is the revealed will of God that all should repent, 
it is not his secret will ; for if it were all would be saved. 
Now, the idea is very strange that God should command any 
one to repent and not regenerate him; and still more so that 
he should subject any one to suffer the penal fires of hell 
because he does uot, w T hen it is impossible before regeneration, 
whatever may be the commands and light apart from it. The 
doctrine of Christ is, however, that all men ought to repent, 
and he commands them to repent, and if they do not, there 
must be blame somewhere. It is a useless cavil for Calvinists 
to tell us that they could repent, not being regenerated; and 
no less so to attach blame to the impenitent because they did 
not do what was both impossible and opposed to the secret 
will of God. But the most irreconcilable feature in the whole 
system of Calvinism, is that it presents a conflict between the 
revealed and secret will of God. For while it is his revealed 
will that all men should repent, this is opposed by his secret 
will and eternal decrees, which withhold the grace and renders 
a compliance with his revealed will necessarily impossible. 
With this kind of a play upon the will of God, a man with 
ordinary capacity may prove whatever he may set his mind 
upon. Surely there is some Scriptural method of teaching the 
doctrine of repentance which will sustain the majesty of God 
and the honor of his throne and derogate nothing from salva- 
tion by grace. Let man be held responsible for his conversion 
to God on the ground that it is the will of God that he should 
repent, that God gives him the grace and he can and ought, 
and let his salvation be suspended and turn upon his own 
election ; and then if he does not repent and trust in Christ 
he ought to perish. Repentance is sometimes said to be a 
godly sorrow for, and a turning from, sin, without any dis- 
crimination between the repentance of a law-condemned 
sinner and a justified Christian; and in conformity with this 
definition it is denominated an evangelical grace, which is in 
keeping with the sentiment that it proceeds from a regenerated 
heart which loves God. Now, I hold that an unregenerated 



142 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

heart does not love God, and cannot in that state, and yet 
that he" requires repentance in order to salvation, and that 
together with faith is the condition of salvation. Whenever, 
therefore, it is conceived to be an evangelical grace and the 
result of regeneration, it needs only to be connected with the 
will of God, who will have all men to be saved and to come to 
the knowledge of the truth, and then with final perseverauce 
and we have universal salvation. For if God wills the repent- 
ance of all and gives the new heart, all must be saved ; but if 
this momentous matter is suspended upon the will of man 
while it is the will of God that all men should repent, and he 
gives the light of the Spirit that they may, then if they do not, 
their blood be upon their own head. When the position is 
taken that repentance indiscriminately is of a godly sort, and 
that no other is approved of the Lord, the whole question is 
often greatly embarrassed and the repentance of the unre- 
generate is rendered impossible upon any condition adapted 
to their condition. For it is at once argued that none but the 
godly are capable of godly sorrow. It is the fruit of regenera- 
tion and never can precede it. Now, that the children of God 
when they offend, sorrow after this sort I admit; but that 
convicted, law-condemned sinners differ nothing in their 
sorrow from the regenerate is denied ; and yet it is as accept- 
able with the Lord in its place when it is sincere, as that of a 
Christian in its place: for neither can be said in truth to 
merit anything. The definition, godly sorrow and evangelical 
grace, when it is referred to repentance, would be less liable 
to objection were it not designed in its very frame work to 
sap the very foundation of free agency. For the same system 
of doctrine assumes that faith is also the result of regeneration, 
and this is unconditionally given to some and withheld from 
others. If, therefore, it should be conceded that both faith 
and repentance are evangelical graces, results of regeneration, 
then it would be ridiculously absurd to suppose that all could 
repent unless God should regenerate all in advance. But we 
are not authorized to conclude that the Spirit regenerates all, 
but we are fully assured that it is the will of God that all 
should repent, and that in some way he commands all men 
everywhere to repent, and all attempts to explain to the contrary 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 143 

must terminate in palpable contradictions of God's plain 
word. For further proof of this hear Christ in person in his 
lamentation over Jerusalem : " O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
thatkillest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto 
thee ; how often would I have gathered thy children together, 
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
would not." — Mat. xxiii. 37. Then, to add perspicuity and 
force to the above, let us hear Peter (2nd Ep. in. 9), " The 
Lord is not slack concerning his promise, a3 some men count 
slackness ; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that 
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 
Here we have what is sometimes called the secret will of God 
fully unfolded as it relates to this point of doctrine. The Lord 
himself says once and again that it was his will to gather 
them under his wings, but they would not; and Peter, doubt- 
less in opposition to some errors of that day, says, "That the 
Lord is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but 
that all should come to repentance." Surely, then, if the 
Lord is unwilling that any should perish and does will that 
all should come to repentance, why, as a Calvinist would say, 
does he not carry out and evince such to be his will, and give 
them repentance by renewing their hearts ? This is the hard 
question and admits of no evasion. Either God wills that all 
men should repent, or he does not — one or the other must be 
true. If a Calvinist should concede that it is his will that all 
should repent, then as a matter of course he must connect 
grace with that will for the sake of consistency to make it 
possible, and this he cannot do upon his plan of salvation by 
grace without a sovereign application of it to all hearts in 
their regeneration, for he holds to no other possibility of re- 
pentance, except by a sovereign application of grace which 
regenerates the heart. Then he is compelled to give up his 
Calvinistic views or deny that God's will is that all should 
repent; or, then, he must assume that he accomplishes his 
will in universal regeneration. Having advanced to this 
point he is in a strait betwixt two : either he must embrace 
the doctrine of apostacy, or become a Universalist. For all 
being regenerated, all will be saved, unless some of them 
should apostatise. But we see that he makes his way out, or 






144 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

attempts it, before he reaches this crisis : for, as we shall see, 
he makes an assault upon the will of God, as I conceive. Cal- 
vin says, "But experience teaches that he (God) does not will 
the repentance of those whom he externally calls in such a 
manner as to affect all their hearts." — Ins., vol. n, book 3, ch. 
xxiv, pp. 195. In the same connection he says, " That God 
is doubtless ready to pardon sinners immediately on their 
conversion, and, therefore, he wills not their death inasmuch 
as he wills their repentance." The sum and substance of it is, 
that God's revealed will is their repentance, but his secret will 
is that they should not; but if they were to repent in despite 
of his secret will aud without the aid of grace, then he would 
pardon them. The pardon of which he speaks appears to be 
predicated upon a shadow somewhere, or nowhere, between 
God's two conflicting wills. For he says on page 187, " There 
are two kinds of calling," — "for there is a universal call, by 
which God in the external preaching of the Word invites all 
indiscriminately to come to him, even those to whom he in- 
tends it as a savour of death, and an occasion of heavier 
condemnation." There is also a special call, etc. These two 
calls are regulated by two wills : his revealed will governs the 
general call, and his secret will the special call, and when he 
was charged with the inconsistency of ascribing to God two 
wills, he says, " This I grant, provided it be rightly explained." 
The solution which he gives is marvelous indeed, as will be 
seen. He says, "That by a figurative mode of expression, 
that what is peculiar to man is transferred to God ; that 
though to our apprehension the will of God is manifold and 
various, yet he does not in himself will things at variance with 
each other, but astonishes our faculties with his various and 
manifold wisdom." Calvin, in his attempt to explain and 
reconcile the statements of Paul and Peter with his notions of 
eternal decrees, is at least very paradoxical in his argument, 
if nothing worse; for he does, as we see clearly, take the posi- 
tion that God has two wills, one that all men should repent, 
and the other that they should not. For after he says that 
God has a will that all men should repent and that his call is 
universal, he admits this notion of God to be inconsistent, but 
claims the right of explication, which, after it has been given, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 145 

only amounts to the same thing. For he says that the will of 
God appears to be " manifold and various to our minds, yet 
in himself he does not will things at variance with each other." 
But at the same time while it does so appear, his only sub- 
terfuge is to beg the question by telling us that God's secret 
will is to be the rule of interpretation, and that while it 
appears to be his revealed will that all should repent and come 
to the knowledge of the truth as the apostles have said, and 
while God does call all men to come to him, yet after all this 
it is not true, forasmuch aa it is not the secret will of God ; 
his secret will is that some men shall never come to repent- 
ance, but shall sink to perdition. If his interpretation be 
true, I confess that my faculties are even overwhelmed with 
astonishment at the contradictions between the secret and 
revealed will of God, and the misleading tendency of both. 
The only safe rule of interpretation to my mind, is to let the 
secret will of God remain a secret with himself until he sees 
fit to make it known, and be governed and directed by his 
revealed will, and whatever we may think or say of secret 
things, let us travel by the light of what God has revealed. 
But how presumptuous for us mortals to claim a knowledge 
of God's secret will, and the more so when our assumptions 
bring us not only in conflict with ourselves but with God, and 
God in palpable conflict with himself. And this is the atti- 
tude of Calvinism, that unless God's revealed will be 
interpreted according to its assumptions of his secret will and 
decrees, his revealed will must stand contradicted. Hence, 
Calvin in the application of his rule of interpretation to the 
declarations of Paul and Peter, and also Christ himself, where 
one says, "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come 
unto the knowledge of the truth," and the other, "Not will- 
ing that any should perish, but that all should come to 
repentance," and the Master says, "How often would I have 
gathered thy children as a hen gathereth her chickens under 
her wings, and ye would not." To all of this his panacea is 
applied, and he makes sad havoc of it all, and tells us in one 
breath that it is the will of God that all should repent and be 
saved, and in the next that it is not his will. He only wills 
the repentance of the elect, and to them he gives a special 



146 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

call — he regenerates their hearts that they shall repent. But 
while he calls the others and tells them he wills their repent- 
ance and salvation, it is not true, for he wills their damnation; 
and he attempts to prove it by referring us to the eternal 
decrees and secret will of God as I have shown. In his com- 
ment on our Lord's lamentation over Jerusalem he manifestly 
insinuates that our Lord was moved by human sympathy in 
the utterance of those gracious words of long-suffering and 
willingness to save them. His words are, "I confess that 
Christ here speaks, not merely in his human character, but 
that he is upbraiding the Jews for having in all ages rejected 
his grace." — 2nd vol., pp. 197. And then, as I have before 
shown, " That which is peculiar to man is transferred to God 
by figurative language." I confess that his language is some- 
what enigmatical, yet the only idea conveyed by it is, that 
Christ only spake as a man moved by human sympathy and 
uttered his own feelings and will as a man, but not the true 
secret will of God. We see, then, if it should be conceded 
that Christ uttered the will of God in truth, that it is his will 
to save all, even those who sink to hell; and the very and 
only reason why any are lost is that they oppose the whole 
will of God, " and will not come to Christ that they might 
have life." I should not have troubled the reader with the 
sentiments of Calvin in this lecture of repentance, were it not 
true that he is not alone in assuming that repentance is an 
evangelical grace from first to last and commences with an 
effectual call — a renewed heart; for it is clear to my mind 
that the same sentiment, dressed somewhat differently, is in- 
terwoven with more creeds than one and has obtained to an 
alarming extent. That salvation is all of grace I entertain 
not the semblance of a doubt; yet I must believe God w 7 hen 
he asseverates that he has no pleasure in the death of the 
wicked, and that he is not willing that any should perish, but 
that all should repent and be saved. Now, if this is true, I 
cannot admit that repentance is the result of regeneration and 
refuse to believe that God regenerates all men and that they 
will all be saved unless they apostatise, which I can no more 
admit than universal salvation. To me there is no difficulty 
in maintaining both the free agency of man and salvation by 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 147 

grace; for while it is true that he can and ought to repent in 
order to salvation, being illuminated by the Spirit, it is not 
true that he can merit any thing; nor has any one ever been 
able to show on what principle any claim to merit could be 
set up. For even the most rigid Calvinist would not allow 
that even the regenerate can possibly merit any thing, and 
why they should charge the advocates of agency with claim- 
ing any ground of merit because they hold that sinners, on 
being enlighted by the Spirit, can repent and accept of salva- 
tion or reject it as they may choose, is what they cannot 
satisfactorily answer. And the only reason why they make 
such charge upon the doctrine which has reached my mind 
is that it powerfully conflicts with unconditional election and 
effectual calling. Again, if the Lord's plan cuts off' all boast- 
ing from Christians, I am sure the same plan would exclude 
the law-condemned sinner from boasting of his works. For 
although he repents of his sins, trembles at his danger discov- 
ered by the light of the Spirit, turns to Christ and trusts 
in him for salvation ; yet after all this it was the Spirit that 
enlightened his heart, and all that he accepted and relied upon 
for life was grace, the free gift of God. The light of the 
Spirit given to convince of sin is always the grace of repent- 
ance, whether the subject of it repents or not. For that he 
does reprove the world of sin we have from his own mouth, 
and this I understand to be the gift of repentance, though 
many should grieve the Spirit from their hearts and perish in 
their sins. " For except ye repent ye shall all likewise per- 
ish." If God gives the grace of repentance so as to render it 
possible for a sinner to repent, this is as truly the grace of 
repentance, though he may never repent, as if he did. For 
because it was rejected and failed to accomplish what it was 
designed to do, it remains in all respects as if it had been 
improved. If God should make a tender of grace to two men, 
fully ample to save them, and both of them were to accept 
and be saved, all would call that saving grace. But on the 
supposition that one of them were to reject it and perish in 
his sins, what would it be ? Manifestly nothing else but sav- 
ing grace with no other difference than this : in the one case 
it proved effectual, and in the other it did not. The difference 



148 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

is to be found in actions of the two individuals and not in the 
grace. Hence, Christ is the Saviour of all men because he 
came for that purpose, and had full power and was amply able 
to do it, while it is true that he only actually saves those who 
receive him. But the fact of his being the Saviour of all men 
remains true, and for this reason alone, that he came for that 
purpose and did positively provide salvation for all men and 
render their salvation possible. Then to return, I maintain 
that conviction for sin is the grace of repentance and the gift 
of repentance ; for this illumination of the Spirit is bestowed 
unconditionally upon all without first requiring either repent- 
ance or faith as conditions. As Paul says, Rom. n. 29, " For 
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." But 
manifestly these gifts make repentance and submission to 
Christ possible, and consequently a duty and the condition of 
pardon and eternal life. But in the bestowment of these 
gifts we are never to conceive that actual repentance necessa- 
rily and invariable follows ; it is only the grace of repentance, 
conviction for sin. There is a repentance unto life, and a 
repentance unto death ; the last is that which will be repented 
of, for it will in a certain sense be endless. " For godly 
sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented 
of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." — 2nd Cor« 
viii. 10. Here we have a discrimination made by inspiration 
between two kinds of repentance, the one unto life and the 
other unto death. The former was manifestly sorrow for 
sins committed against God, designed to take in the whole 
of repentance by which the truly penijtent heart is exercised 
and which terminates in salvation. While the latter does not 
appear to be repentance, nor in any way connected with 
religion, but properly of a worldly nature, such as men feel 
when they are disgraced by the exposure of their dark crimes 
to the gaze of their fellow men, from disappointed ambition, 
blighted expectations or the loss of worldly emoluments, or 
all of these; they sorrow or repent in some sense, but not in 
consequence of having sinned against God nor with any in- 
tention to reform and seek pardon from his hand. It is, 
therefore, the sorrow of the world and needs to be repented 
of as well as other sins, and unless it be repented of it will 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 149 

terminate in death. There is, however, no distinction made 
here between legal and evangelical repentance, for it would 
appear from what is said in this place that the whole of 
repentance which has any relation to God and religion is all 
evangelical, and especially when it terminates in salvation. 
As before stated, I do not object to this only in so far as men 
have assumed that evangelical repentance is the sequence of 
regeneration and never precedes it; it is the absolute gift of 
God including all conditions. This I reject as grossly absurd, 
and maintain that repentance as truly precedes regeneration 
as it succeeds it, and the main reason why I would denomi- 
nate the former legal in contra-distinction to the latter, is in 
reference to the different states of the heart exercised and not 
in view of the light of the Spirit which illuminates. The 
spirit is the same whether the heart be changed or unchanged ; 
but the sinner repents through a dread of divine wrath and a 
desire to obtain salvation, while the child of God repents 
because he loves him whom he has offended. The contro- 
versy is plainly this (i. e.) : Some hold that none but the 
children of God ever truly repent; while I maintain that all 
sinners must repent or they never will become the children of 
God, but will certainly perish in their sins. There is one 
other reason why a distinction ought to be drawn between 
legal and evangelical repentance, i. e., it appears from the 
Scriptures of divine truth that it is possible, and some are 
spoken of as having been the subjects of repentance who fell 
from it and sunk into a hopeless state where repentance 
became impossible. And it is worthy of special remark that 
these same characters are represented by inspiration as having 
been penitents. " For it is impossible for those who were 
once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and 
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the 
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if 
they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, 
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and 
put him to an open shame." — Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. Nothing 
could be more absurd and foreign from the truth than to sup- 
pose the apostle capable of a wild speculation in this case, or 
that he was venturing upon that which was impossible — a 



150 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

mere flight of imagination — for lie plainly speaks of realities. 
The possibility of falling away from repentance is doubtless 
taught here, and it is manifestly not the repentance of the 
world, for that would avail nothing if it were renewed through 
life — it would end in death at last. That from which they 
fell was true repentance as far as it went, the Holy Ghost, the 
good Word of God, the powers ot the world to come, were 
brought to bear upon them and they fell away from repent- 
ance; and while they could not be saved without the. renewal 
of it, its renewal became impossible. Calvin, finding a two- 
horned dilemma ready to goad his system of doctrine to its 
vitals, became very stern and morose in contending with this 
connection of Scripture. For if he had admitted them to 
have had true repentance, such as he tells us God gives, then 
he must necessarily have admitted the doctrine of apostacy in 
its fullest extent ; because he and his school hold that repent- 
ance has its birth in regeneration, and those penitents were 
regenerated — they were children of God, elect, and they fell 
from regeneration; the children of God, his elect, fell into a 
hopeless state. But while he is mute as to their repentance 
and does not inform us whether it was legal or evangelical, 
he says they committed the unpardonable sin, the sin against 
the Holy Ghost. This, however, might answer his purpose, 
for the time, as a kind of scapegoat, hut nothing more ; for 
surely his notions of the sin against the Holy Ghost, when 
brought in juxtaposition with the doctrine of decrees and 
eternal reprobation, must appear strangely absurd. For it 
does appear that the reprobate, for w T hom Christ made no 
atonement and whom the Holy Spirit could no more illumi- 
nate with any gracious design than Satan, could not by any 
possibility commit the sin against the Holy Ghost. Surely 
there can be no sin against the Holy Spirit of any magnitude 
by the reprobate, for the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with 
such but to pass them by, as it would be as impossible to 
bring them to repentance as if they were at the time in the 
depths of perdition. If there is any sin against the Holy 
Ghost, as there doubtless is, it must be a sin of such as have been 
redeemed by Christ ; and, moreover, those whom Calvin says 
committed that sin, Paul informs us of their former penitency. 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 151 

Here I take the liberty of stating that the doctrine of the 
Bible and Calvinism are antagonistic, and never can be 
brought to harmonize ; for Calvinism says all who repent are 
certain of salvation, and the Bible affirms of some who re- 
pented and fell away, that it is impossible to renew them to 
that state again. The above passage of scripture can only be 
solved by a direct attack upon at least one cardinal member 
of Calvinism, which relates to man's responsibility in the ac- 
ceptance of life, as stipulated in the gospel. The promise of 
salvation is clearly and unequivocally made to all who believe 
in the Son of God, and their faith, like that of Peter's, will 
not fail. But repentance, however important, is not the con- 
dition of life, only as it is succeeded by saving faith in Christ. 
And as repentance precedes faith, and faith precedes justifi- 
cation, and, as a matter of course, regeneration, it cannot be 
the fruit of regeneration, but an antecedent of it, and also of 
faith. This antecedent repentance is what we denominate 
legal, and is what those Jews possessed at some former time, 
and from which they fell, as stated by the apostle. No such 
repentance, therefore, can be evangelical in that sense which 
assumes it to be the fruit of regeneration, or a saving grace, 
as no regenerated persons fall into hopeless despair. If there 
is, therefore, a repentance peculiar to the child of God, there 
must also be a repentance peculiar to the sinner, and there is 
at least this clear difference: the last named may stop short 
of salvation, while the former now has eternal life, and the 
repentance of the sinner mast connect with faith, which 
trusts in Christ as the condition of life, while the repentance 
of the child of God is no part of the condition of life, as he 
already has it. Nothing, as I conceive, can truly be a condi- 
tion of salvation which is meritorious, as the whole of man's 
salvation is of grace. Faith could not be a condition of life, 
if it were, in any sense, meritorious, nor could repentance 
connect with it as a necessary anterior exercise, for the rea- 
son offered above, if it were or could be, in any sense, of the 
nature of merit ; but as neither the one nor the other, in a 
separate state, is meritorious, both, when taken together, 
cannot be, nor is any such claim set up by the advocates of 
agency. He who best knows, and has the right to settle con- 



152 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

troversies, having provided salvation for sinners, has seen fit 
to make a free tender of it to them as such, and does require, 
in the acceptance thereof, both repentance and faith, and if a 
new heart were necessary in either case, he would, doubtless, 
give it wherever he requires these exercises. Consequently, 
there never could be any ground of complaint on his part, as 
the fruits could not fail to follow regeneration, and the num- 
ber of peniteut believers would be as the number of renewed 
hearts, and neither more nor less. In conformity with this 
opinion, if faith is the sequence of a divine change in the 
heart, and, in this sense, the gift of God, repentance is no 
less so, and both are the gift of God. We have only to ad- 
vance one step further to see, to our hearts' content, the ab- 
surdity of this sentiment. God's commands and solemn req- 
uisitions are all reasonable, and in perfect harmony with him- 
self, and must be well adapted to his obligated creatures. If 
so, how can he command all men everywhere to repent, as Paul 
says, and withhold the requisite gift of repentance? Here it 
may be said that this question is too recondite to admit of a 
solution, or that we have no right to make such inquiries; 
that these are among the secret things of God. But I yet in- 
sist that the question is a fair one, and, so far from being of 
the secret things of God, that it is one of the most clearly re- 
vealed facts in the Bible — " that God commands all men every- 
where to repent," " not willing that any should perish, but that 
all should come to repentance." Surely no one will question 
this as a clear revelation, nor can the answer be withheld so 
much through reverence for God as from a sectarian sympa- 
thy for some greyheaded and fondly-cherished dogma. There 
can be but one opinion and one answer: if God wills that all 
should repent, and commands all men to repent, it must be in 
his heart, bottomed upon the atonement and made possible by 
his gifts, whether they be a divine illumination of the mind, 
or a change of heart; one or the other, or both, must be his 
gift to all men. A divine illumination would make repent- 
ance fully possible, and throw the full weight of responsi- 
bility upon the creature, while regeneration would make it 
absolutely certain, according to the advocates of that opin- 
ion. Hence, as before stated, either universal salvation or 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 153 

apostacy must be the result; or, then, Paul and Peter must 
be contradicted, and the gracious will of God and his com- 
mand to all men must succumb to human opinions. Those 
who assume that both repentance and faith, even in their first 
germ, result from regeneration only, are consistent in one 
thing (i. e.), that they discard all conditions in the gospel 
scheme of salvation, but inconsistent in adjudging man, un- 
conditionally, to perdition as a self-destroyer. I take the po- 
sition that God requires repentance and faith as the condition 
of the gift of eternal life, but these are not inseparably con- 
nected, so as that all who repent invariably believe in Christ, 
though none believe in him who do not first repent, but they 
may repent and never believe, and from this point fall back 
to where it will be impossible to renew or bring them again 
to repentance, and they may fall from repentance, but not 
from faith and justification. The question is altogether a 
fair one, as I conceive, W^as it possible for God to adapt the 
plan of salvation to man in his fallen state, and require his 
acceptance, and his acceptance be possible without a change 
of heart, and yet salvation be of grace? If it was possible, 
I can see no reason why the affirmative of the question should 
not be the universal and unopposed doctrine of Christians, 
when tne Word of God everywhere clearly so teaches. But 
we are met with this objection, among others, that it is un- 
reasonable, and even impossible, that any one could accept of 
Christ and his benefits who did not love him; that he can 
only be received with a pure affection, with love, and this is 
impossible with the unrenewed heart. I admit that no un- 
renewed heart loves Christ, and, more, 'that all who do not 
love him must be anathema maranalha; but it is unequivo- 
cally denied that God has made any such condition, or re- 
quires any such thing in the acceptance of his Son, in order 
to justification and eternal life, and the proof is called for. 
The qualification for heaven is, in one word, holiness, and all 
holy persons, doubtless, love God; and, moreover, that we, 
who are unholy, may attain to holiness, he has provided and 
introduced the remedial system, and appointed such a condi- 
tion as meets our condition and pleased himself; but surely 
holiness, neither in whole nor in part, can be assumed as the 
11 



154 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

condition of itself, nor can it be proven to be an essential pre- 
requisite in the agent who is to accept of that which is to make 
him holy. For he cannot be supposed to be holy, but by an 
application of that which he is required to accept at the peril 
of his soul; but if the application be made before acceptance, 
it only amounts to this, that acceptance is rather the result of 
the blessing offered than the instrument of its acceptance, and 
the agency of man is to be exercised after he is changed and 
made certain of heaven, as we hold. Let it be assumed that 
repentance and whatever else enters into the nature of the 
gospel condition of life eternal must be virtuous as an action, 
and that the quality of the heart of the actor must decide the 
quality of the action, which is either pure or impure, like the 
heart, and we have all attempts at repentance and faith in 
Christ condemned as sinful and deserving of the penal fires 
of hell, and the impenitent and unbelieving settled down in 
a state of supineness until they are regenerated. On the as- 
sumption that repentance is a holy exercise, or that both re- 
pentance and faith are such, the reasoning of those who deny 
free agency, as I take it, is very plausible, when they contend 
that an unholy heart is incompetent to such exercises ante- 
rior to regeneration. But what if proof should be demanded, 
as it is, on two points: 1. That the repentance which God re- 
quires, and has appointed as an accompaniment of faith as the 
gospel condition, is holy ; and (2) that God requires that it 
should be such, or any thing more than sincere repentance 
before regeneration, and in order to it. "Whenever the proof 
shall have been given, it will be time enough to give it a pass- 
ing notice. The advocates of a pure quality in the will, and, 
as a matter of course, a pure soul as its abode, and one which 
loves God before justification by faith, have made sad havoc 
of man's accountability, and to see this, we have but to turn 
over to the first page of the true Record. We are informed 
that he whom God made in his own likeness sinned and fell. 
Reasoning from analogy, in conformity with what has been 
assumed, it must be, as it has been contended, that Adam's 
will was of the quality of that which he coveted, which was 
evil, and, consequently, his soul was impure before ever there 
was a wrong mental action; for if it had not been so, How 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 155 

could he, being holy, put forth an unholy volition ? Now, in 
order to fit this up, there is one more step to he taken, which 
is that either God did not create him holy at first, or he in- 
fused or worked impurity in his soul after he made him, and 
before he put forth that destructive volition. Who does not 
see that such positions and deductions are as dishonoring to 
God as they are perilous to religion ? But if it should be ad- 
mitted, as it must he, that man did not sin because he was 
first made impure in his soul, and, by consequence, in his 
will, will any sane man attempt to say that God may not, and 
does not, accept the action of a will in the bestowment of gos- 
pel blessings, when neither the will nor the soul is pure, any 
more than the soul and will of Adam were impure before he 
took that action which ruined the world? Indeed, there ap- 
pears to be much less difficulty in understanding how the vol- 
untary action of an impure, but enlightened, soul could re- 
pent and believe in Christ, than how a pure soul, that cer- 
tainly did love God, could voluntarily rebel against him. 
And God has but to adapt the remedial system to this world 
of sinners, as- responsible beings, and call upon them to re- 
pent and believe, and I, for one, am ready to believe that they 
can and ought, though the philosophy of ages were to stand 
in bitter array. One of the first calls which God ever made 
to this world, in the opening up of the gospel dispensation 
and the proclamation of salvation by free grace, was a call to 
repent, and some times repent and believe, "and except ye 
repent, ye shall all likewise perish." But never, in all the 
wide range of revealed truth, do we find any thing like im- 
possibility in the way of the sinner, nor the first hint that re- 
generation is an essential pre-requisite to repentance; no, 
never, until we see it in the hands of the builders of Babel, 
amid the confusion of tongues. Whenever the position is 
taken that there must be an affinity between the will of man 
and the object to be chosen, there is much liability, if not in- 
fallible certainty, of great peril to the entire system of truth, 
as the same method of reasoning must be attended to, through 
all the ramifications of theology. Hence, it must rot only be 
maintained that there must be an affinity between the will 
and affections of man and the pure object to be chosen, as 



156 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

tendered in the gospel ; but to be consistent, it must be as- 
sumed that in the fall of man there was an affinity between 
the will and affections of the soul and the evil which he 
chose. And the reasoning that follows is, that, as the object 
to be chosen by the sinner is holy, in order that it be chosen 
by the will and embraced by the affections, the soul must, to 
some extent, be purified, before Christ can be chosen. And, 
on the other hand, as the object interdicted was evil, in that 
sense, to Adam, he could not choose it until his will became 
vicious. And, then, to finish the error, God must be im- 
peached as the author of sin, in preparing the will of man 
for the evil deed; and the system presents a counterpoise, in 
which all the evil and the good are ascribed to the Holy One. 
I protest against the assumption that G-od has arranged and 
ordained that the affections of man must embrace an object 
presented for his acceptance and the choice of his will, and 
that he must first love it, for Adam did not love sin before 
his will acted ; and in this fact we have a clear law of agency 
made fully manifest. And, on turning to man under the rem- 
edial system, we are fully warranted in believing that the 
same law of agency still continues, and that redeemed sin- 
ners, with the light which God affords them, can choose the 
object of eternal 'life before they love him, and it only re- 
quires the same free volition that w T as exercised in the first 
man, who had no affinity for sin anterior to the fatal volition. 
The affection for sin, in Adam, was a sequence of wrong vo- 
lition, and not the power that influenced the will; and love to 
Christ, instead of the cause of a convicted sinner's accepting 
Christ and his salvation, is the result of regeneration, and is 
never felt anterior to justification by faith in Christ. Free 
will and the power of choosing Christ as he is offered in the 
gospel, consists, mainly, in the perfect freedom of the will, 
together with intelligence and the light of the Holy Spirit to 
reprove of sin, and this is fully demonstrated by the Son of 
God himself, when he said to sinners, "And ye will not come 
to me, that ye might have life ;" laying full stress upon the 
will. God's plan is, that we take action, feeling convinced 
of our sins and need of what he has provided and tenders 
freely for our unequivocal election, and when it is God's plan 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 157 

and the law of free agency, the choice can be made as fully 
to his satisfaction without love as with it. And the heart to 
love Christ and his service will certainly follow. A justified 
Christian serves God because he loves him, and here we see 
an affinity; but the convicted sinner repents and believes in 
Christ because God has made it both his privilege and duty, 
and has promised salvation on that very condition, and on no 
other, and the sinner, desiring salvation, takes God at his word; 
he gives his heart to God, not because God had previously 
made it good, but he gives God his polluted heart — all of it — 
that he may make it good and save it. 

Those who have advocated the opposite of this opinion, 
have furnished for themselves and others a theological 
jumble, which has done no little harm to religion. For, 
according to them, while they admit that justification is by 
faith alone, they must have the heart regenerated before re- 
pentance and faith, and, of course, before justification; in 
fact, he must be a Christian in heart and love God before he 
is ever justified by faith, and then come to Christ with a good 
heart and pure affections. This is the character whom they 
present us with as standing before God for justification. 
Now, it will be seen that they have mistaken the character 
altogether; this is the justified child of God,, and not the 
condemned sinner; the sinner, by repentance and faith, at 
God's bidding comes, that he may be justified and saved, 
and, coming in his rags, with a fixed purpose, like the prod- 
igal, he is met and welcomed to the home of a gracious 
father, with feasting and music. 






158 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



LECTURE X.— FAITH nT CHRIST. 



The Scriptures of divine truth attach very great impor- 
tance to the doctrine of faith, and evince not only its utility, 
but its indispensable necessity as a pre-requisite to every 
gospel blessing. From what is said of it, our minds are lead 
to the conclusion that there is no salvation for those who are 
capable of it, through any other medium or means. All the 
covenanted mercies and blessings provided in the remedial 
system, are tendered freely to faith, with the promise of life 
everlasting ; and God is pleased with it, and displeased with 
unbelief. 

1st. The first aspect of faith is that of simple belief, 
crediting the truth in whatever form it may be pre- 
sented to the mind, whether by written or oral statements. 
This is sometimes called assent, because the mind is swayed 
by it. Truth is no less truth because it may not be believed; 
it still remains truth. Truth is sometimes called faith, it 
being a proper foundation for it, and necessary to its real 
existence ; and when the truth is God's truth, it is called the 
faith of God, though it should not be believed. " For what 
if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith 
of God without effect ? God forbid : yea, let God be true, 
but every man a liar; as it is written, that thou mightest be 
justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou 
art judged." — Rom. in. 3, 4. For this very good reason, those 
who defended revealed truth, contended for the faith once 
delivered to the saints. Jude 3 : " Beloved, when I gave all 
diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was 
needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye 
should earnestly contend for the faith which was once 
delivered to the saints." This faith related to the common 
salvation — the plan of recovery by free grace, which most 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 159 

clearly demonstrates that its benefits were designed to be 
received by faith. Paul preached this faith wherever he 
went, to the Jews and Gentiles, to great and small. The 
governor Felix "sent for him and heard him concerning the 
faith in Christ." — Acts xxiv. 24. Such as deny the truth of 
the gospel, deny the faith, and are properly denominated 
infidels ; and such as do not obey the truth when they 
believe it, are worse than infidels, and less consistent. 
"Wicked men may believe the truths contained in the system 
of faith, and still continue in sin, as many doubtless have 
done. It is recorded of Simon the Sorcerer, that he believed 
and was baptized, and yet he was not a good man, for an 
inspired apostle said unto him : " Thou hast neither part nor 
lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of 
God. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, 
and in the bond of iniquity." — Acts vin. 13, 21, 23. There 
was evidently a defect in Simon's faith, though there was 
none in the system of truths which he believed, for he 
believed what was preached and was baptized, and still 
remained a wicked man. If he had believed all the gospel 
requires, his heart would certainly have been right, and he 
would have been saved ; for that is evidently what the divine 
Word does promise. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
thou shalt be saved." — Acts xvi. 31. Simon's faith could 
have been nothing more than a bare belief of the truth as 
such, which is true of devils, and doubtless so of multitudes 
of wicked men, who never attain to eternal life. Manifestly, 
there is something more necessary, and something more than 
a belief of the truth is required in the gospel in order to 
attain to eternal life. Christ said to the Jews, " Ye believe 
in God, believe also in me." — John xiv. 1. "For if ye 
believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." — John 
vin. 24. Their faith was sound as far as it went, but it did 
not go far enough ; it stopped short of Jesus Christ and a 
reliance on him, as we shall see in due time. The holy 
Scriptures, though harmonious throughout, and fully calcu- 
lated to convince all reasonable minds of their purity and 
utility as a rule of life, do not constitute a system of 
absolutism, but leave men free to think and act as they may 



160 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

choose. Consequently, the Word of God, while it presents 
its high claims and superiority as a rule of life and a guide 
to felicity, may be set aside and produce no good results, as 
we often see. But after all, the most that truth can do for 
mankind is to convince and reform the outer man, and 
awaken anxious desires within, which it can never satisfy and 
calm. The word of truth convinces of sin and the necessity 
of a remedy for and deliverance from sin, which, by the 
power divine, must be removed from the heart; there must 
be a deliverance within, or there can be no peace. Therefore, 
the system of truth, the gospel of the grace of God, requires 
not only the assent of the mind to the truth, but the full 
consent of the heart to the terms of salvation, which are 
faith in the Son of God. Faith in the Son of God is not 
only a belief in him as the only Saviour, but it implies a 
settled purpose, and a determination of soul to trust in him 
for salvation. 

2d. Faith in Christ will next demand our special attention. 
By saving faith in Christ, we are to understand more than a 
simple belief of the revealed Word, or that Jesus Christ is 
the Son of God. In addition to this, we are to understand a 
firm reliance or trust of the heart in the Son of God for 
salvation. This faith we hold to be the divinely appointed 
condition of salvation, which is eternal life, and to be ante- 
cedent to justification, as justification is to regeneration and 
adoption. If faith is the condition of salvation, and God 
requires it of his creatures and hinges salvation upon it, it 
must be possible, in and by the very organism of the plan 
that requires it; and all the means and helps which were 
known to be necessary to enable man to believe in Christ, 
were provided and secured in the plan as its essential 
elements. The gospel plan was designed for fallen man, and 
he who ordained it and appointed the condition of all its 
benefits, certainly adopted it in all things to the condition 
and circumstances of those for whom it was provided. And 
if faith in Christ as an action of the will and heart, is free 
and voluntary, and man has no ability to comply with what 
the gospel requires, it is morally certain that the ability to 
comply belongs to that very plan which demands faith, and 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 161 

will be imparted to all men of whom it is required, and who 
are under any obligations to believe. For an obligation to 
do, where there is no possibility of doing, is what God has 
not placed his creatures under, nor will he hold them in any 
way responsible. Nothing can be suspended upon an 
impossibility, much less man's salvation, and he be justly 
liable to blame and punishment; and God has not so 
constituted the soul of man as to feel any conscious guilt, 
nor to believe in such absurdities. The divine constitution 
is such — and we are so instructed, a that where little is given, 
little is required," and as a matter of course, where nothing 
is given, nothing will be required. That salvation has been 
provided for all men requires no proof in this place, but will 
be taken as granted ; and the fact that salvation is connected 
with faith in Christ, and is suspended upon it as the condi- 
tion of it, cannot be disputed; for wherever salvation is 
spoken of in the gospel, faith is manifestly named or 
understood as the hinge upon which it turns. If faith is 
impossible, salvation must be equally so, and where both are 
impossible, there can be no just condemnation in relation to 
either. Unbelief is generally admitted to be a sin of no 
ordinary magnitude, and one that deserves to be punished 
with endless death. This opinion is predicated upon a 
possible salvation, made so in all respects; but especially is it 
founded on the fact that unbelief was not necessary and 
unavoidable, but the action was free and in every way 
voluntary. If unbelief is the voluntary sin of man's soul, it 
is not unreasonable to conclude that faith in Christ is equally 
voluntary, and equally the act of the soul. For nothing can 
be more absurd than to suppose freedom of will in one 
direction, and none in the other. And the magnitude of the 
sin of unbelief is as the freedom of the soul and the deter- 
mining power of the will. If the soul has no ability under 
the provisions of the gospel to receive Christ, it has no 
liberty and power to reject him, and the absolute necessity 
which hangs upon the will in one direction hangs upon it in 
the other. Consequently, if faith is not man's voluntary act, 
unbelief is not his sin, nor is he to blame for it. The 
remedial system, however, which proposes eternal life, on 



162 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

condition of faith in Christ, threatens the sin of unbelief 
with endless death, and never in the gospel are the wicked 
spoken of as liable to condemnation and hopeless ruin for 
anything but the sin of unbelief — for rejecting Christ. 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 
" He that believeth not, shall be damned." — Acts xvi. 31 ; 
Mark xvi. 16. The scheme of salvation by free grace, is 
denominated the new covenant, which contemplates parties 
to it on certain specified stipulations, which are well adapted 
to all the parties, so that they may act freely and of choice 
when they enter into it. The covenant Head is the one 
party, and sinners are requested to enter into covenant with 
him, on such terms as he has thought best to propose. Two 
things were doubtless designed to be secured by the cov- 
enant. 1st. The glory of God in man's salvation by free 
grace; and 2d. Man's free moral agency and responsibility. 
To secure at least this much, the covenant Head appointed 
faith as the condition and instrument of salvation by grace, 
which, while it can merit nothing, must from its very nature, 
exclude all boasting; does at the same time throw the full 
weight of responsibility upon the creature by placing all the 
benefits of the covenant within his reach and at his own 
election. In reference to the Jews, who sought righteousness 
by the deeds of the law, Paul says, u That they did not 
attain to righteousness, because they taught it not by faith, 
but as it were by the works of the law," which was not the 
Lord's plan of free grace. The plan, " which is of faith, 
speaketh on this wise: say not in thy heart, who shall ascend 
into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above), or 
who shall descend in to the deep? (that is, to bring Christ up 
again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh 
thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart: (that is, the 
word of faith which we preach) that if thou shalt confess 
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in 
thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou 
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made 
unto salvation." Then he says in another place: "There- 
fore it is of faith, that it might be by grace." — Rom. ix. 31, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 163 

32; x. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; iv. 16. It is very manifest that 
Paul understood faith to be the voluntary exercise of 
man's own heart, and he taught that salvation is fully 
within his reach, and at his own election ; and yet, it is 
'all of grace, and he does not, cannot merit anything; for as 
much as faith can never feel rich, and come with a price in 
her hand. But she comes to the Lord poor, to receive the 
riches of free grace, as God's free gift to sinners. Faith may 
be said to save us and to make us whole, which is in one 
sense true, because it is the instrumental cause of salvation ; 
yet it possesses nothing that has the least virtue or saving 
efficacy in it. The saving power is all in the object of faith, 
and by the sanctifying power of the Spirit operating 
through him. Faith is not a legal instrument, nor does it 
ever attempt to work out a legal righteousness ; but it is 
a gospel instrument, the condition of the covenant of grace, 
and only seeks to be clothed with the righteousness of 
Christ, and to be found in him. Those who object to the 
opinion advocated here, and contend that if faith is the act 
of man's own heart, or be so considered, then would the 
creature have some just claim to merit — must be both 
ignorant of the nature of faith, as well as of the true grounds 
of merit. For where there is no profitable service rendered 
or real price paid for a thing, but on the contrary, it is 
offered as a gift, and received as a gift, on what principle 
of law or gospel can it be said by any one of common sense, 
that the way is opened by the sentiment advocated, for 
boasting? The objection must appear futile, as it is neither 
founded upon any known law of God, or the gospel of Jesus 
Christ ; but it is in fact at variance with both, or all of these, 
and has no claim to reason whatever. All such objectors are 
the advocates of a limited atonement, ot unconditional 
election and reprobation; of regeneration before faith and 
justification; of faith as the sovereign unconditional gift of 
God; and yet they claim to hold that man is responsible for 
unbelief, and justly liable to punishment for it. It is 
unreasonable to suppose that God would require anything of 
his creatures which he knows to be impossible, and much 
more so, that he would make such impossibility the condition 



164 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of salvation, and suspend their eternal destiny upon it. Let 
us look at the question in whatever aspect we please, in 
order that man be held responsible for faith in Christ, and 
justly liable to punishment for unbelief, he must be brought 
to a point of liberty and ability, where the action of receiv- 
ing or rejecting Christ is his own free, unconstrained, and 
unrestrained choice. And moreover, this state of trial must 
be anterior to a state of salvation, or there can be nothing 
suspended upon it. If the Divine Being were to make a 
tender of life to man on condition of faith, and require his 
acceptance, and hold him responsible for the action, though 
he should not even be enlightened by the Spirit, we dare not 
say that acceptance is impossible, charging God with folly. 
But if it could be proven that faith in Christ before a change 
of heart is impossible, then we are compelled to conclude 
that God will even impart that to all of whom he requires it; 
otherwise he will not hold them responsible for it. Then, 
1st. We object to regeneration before faith, because this is 
salvation and eternal life, and if this is necessary in one case, 
it must be so in every one, and if it were given to all, all 
would be saved. But if all should not be renovated, but 
only a part, the part not renovated could not believe, 
though they should suffer for their unbelief forever, in hell; 
their sufferings would be unavoidable, and for a crime not 
their own. 2d. We object, because it is totally at variance 
with the order of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our order 
presents Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, and justifi- 
cation by faith in his name, as the only way of salvation and 
eternal life. But that scheme assumes that man must be in 
a state of salvation before he comes to Christ, or can come 
by faith in his name, and has him coming to Christ with 
salvation and eternal life in him, before he is justified by 
faith, according to the gospel plan published by the Son of 
God. He does not come to Christ that he may have life, but 
he comes because he is a new creature and has life. 3d. We 
object to it, because while it claims to be the advocate of 
salvation by grace, it takes a position which perils the 
doctrines of the God of grace, by removing all responsibility 
from the creature to the Creator. And its whole tendency is 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 165 

to paralyze ministerial effort, and to justify the ungodly in 
their course of rebellion against God. The doctrine of 
salvation by grace is true, and can be sustained by the Word 
of God without a war upon the responsibility of man. For 
God certainly could devise a plan, and we are certain that he 
did, to save man by grace alone, and yet he be active in. its 
reception while yet in bis sins. The very plan which God 
devised was for "sinners, and certainly he designed as fully to 
sustain the free moral agency of man on the one hand, as 
salvation by grace on the other, and could sustain both, and 
we can see it. But the doctrines to which we object, are not 
so much the doctrines of grace as of decrees and of uncondi- 
tional election and reprobation. The doctrine of grace is 
one thing, and that of unconditional election and reprobation 
quite another ; they are not inseparably connected as predes- 
tinarians have assumed. But the doctrine of grace can be as 
fully maintained, while predestination is rejected; and 
certainly it must be rejected in order to maintain the free 
moral agency of man, for the two are irreconcileable, as 
predestinarians have shown by their war upon free agency 
in order to sustain unconditional election. This will account 
for their placing regeneration before faith in Christ, and also 
for the assumption that faith-reliance is the gift of God, 
absolutely and unconditionally given. 

To this we also object: 1. Because it associates with the 
former error, and denies all conditions iu the gospel, and as- 
sumes that to be the absolute gift of God which alone ap- 
pears to be the greatest test of man's agency, and that upon 
which his salvation is suspended. Saving faith might be held 
as the gift of God, and yet be the condition of life and the in- 
strument of salvation; provided it were actively received on 
some condition within the scope of man's reach, and for 
which he would be held responsible. But this is not admit- 
ted by the advocates of the sentiment; they do not admit 
that faith is given on any condition whatsoever, for they 
know of none, there is none. The admission of a condition 
would be, in effect, a relinquishment of the doctrine. For if 
man is competent to receive faith as a gift from God, it would 
appear that he is competent to receive, actively, any other 






166 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

gift, even that of eternal life. But the sentiment is emphat- 
ically that man can receive nothing from the hand of God 
which relates to salvation ; neither faith nor grace can be re- 
ceived actively — all must be received passively and uncondi- 
tionally. It is said by the advocates of the doctrine, " That 
the Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, 
by working faith in us, thereby uniting us to Christ by the 
effectual working of his power." But in what kind of a 
heart does the Spirit work this faith? Certainly not in an 
unrenewed heart, for we have seen that the subjects of it are, 
by the working, united to Christ; they are regenerated and 
united to Christ unconditionally. Consequently, regenera- 
tion and the gift of faith are at the same time and by the 
same operation, and in perfect keeping with unconditional 
election and reprobation, and faith is the condition of noth- 
ing, any more than eternal election is. We have seen that, 
in accordance with this scheme, faith in Christ and regenera- 
tion are one and the same thing, or that faith is the necessary 
and certain result of regeneration and union with Christ. 
Now, what shall we say of those and to those who have no 
faith? Shall we admonish them to believe in Christ, and 
threaten them with the righteous judgments of the Lord if 
they do not believe, as Christ and his apostles did in their 
day ? If we do, it ought to be done in conformity with the 
gospel which they preached, and not according to the as- 
sumption of predestinarians. For, according to the latter, 
unbelievers have nothing to do, and can do nothing, until 
God renovates their hearts and gives them faith. But Christ 
would say, " Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." 
And Paul, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
be saved." Salvation is either conditional or unconditional. 
If it is conditional, faith must be the condition, and the crea- 
ture must be active in complying with it; he must believe 
with his heart unto righteousness, as Paul says. But if it be 
unconditional, we have nothing to say and nothing to do. 
Those who claim to be less rigid, and yet hold faith to be the 
gift of God, sometimes speak of it as the gift of God and the 
act of the creature both. 

Here we urge our second objection : Because the position 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 167 

is so very obscure and indefinite as to have no tangible 
point; it can be suited to either side, as occasion may re- 
quire. It is both active and passive, negative and positive, 
any where and no where. Where shall it be found ? and 
what is it? It is said to be both gift and act And how 
shall we distinguish the gift from the act? Justifying, sav- 
ing faith in Christ, of which we speak, is certainly active, or 
it is dead, and no faith at all. Then let us see what the gift 
part is, and what the act part is, and which has the priority, 
and whether the one follows the other, as cause and effect, 
with infallible certainty. What is the gift? Is it a new 
heart, and a holy principle wrought in it, that loves God, as 
predestinarians say? Surely this cannot be what is meant, 
for this differs nothing from the predestinarian scheme ; it is 
the very same thing. For they hold that faith in this way is 
both the gift of God and the act of the creature; but the gift 
is first, and the act follows as a necessary sequence. The next 
view of this gift must be, that there is a life principle wrought 
in the heart, which yet remains unchanged, and this principle, 
in the unholy heart, is antecedent to any act as a condition ; it 
is unconditional, as there can be no act without the principle 
of action. Then it only remains for us to know whether this 
principle or power is certain to act or not. If it is certain to 
act faith in Christ, it properly belongs to the unconditional 
salvation scheme. But if it may never act, but may be driven 
from the heart, in consequence of a refusal to act, this sup- 
posed principle must be under the control of the heart after 
all, and all this mystification is to no purpose whatever. For 
the conclusion of the whole matter shows the gift called faith 
to be no faith at all, but the light of the Spirit in the heart or 
conviction for sin. This enables the sinner to believe in Christ, 
but, at the same time, leaves him perfectly free to grieve the 
Spirit and reject Christ. If this is what we are to understand 
by this gift, it would be much better to call it by its scriptural 
name : the light of the Holy Spirit, or conviction for sin, and 
not faith. For justifying faith is action itself at the very out- 
set; it is the action of the heart, as Paul says, "For with the 
heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth 
confession is made unto salvation." — Rom. x. 10. The 



168 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

absurdity of calling anything faith which never acts, is most 
manifest. For if we speak of justifying faith we mean action, 
and justification- by it as the active instrument; and where 
there is no justification there is no faith, nor was there ever 
any — nothing but perpetual unbelief: " for all who do believe 
are justified from all things." To believe in Christ, as we 
have said, is the same as receiving and relying upon bim for 
life eternal John says, " He came unto his own, and his own 
received him not : but as many as received him, to them gave 
he power to become the sons of God." — John i. 11, 12. Here 
it will be seen that they (the people) received him, and the 
power which he imparted changed and constituted them sons 
of God. But the most happy illustration of saving faith 
known to us was given by our Lord to Nicodetnus, John in. 
14, 15, 16, 17: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his 
only begotton Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his 
Son into the world to condemn the world : but that the world 
through him might be saved." The design of our Lord in 
referring to the suffering Israelites who were perishing from 
the bite of venomous serpents, was doubtless for the purpose 
of illustrating the doctrine of saving faith. The circumstance 
referred to is recorded in the 21st chapter of Numbers. There 
we are informed that many of the Israelites were bitten by 
fiery serpents and died; but in the midst of their sufferings 
Moses, at the command of God, made a serpent of brass in the 
likeness of those, and placed it on a pole in the midst of the 
camp of the sufferers, and commanded them to look upon it, 
with the special promise that all who did so should live, and 
not die. And we are informed that as many as looked upon 
it lived. With these plain facts before us, we have these 
words from Christ in reference to saving faith, as an exposi- 
tion of it: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eter- 
nal life." If there is any fitness in the analogy placed before 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 169 

us by Jesus Christ, as we must believe there is, faith in Christ 
is as much the act of man's own heart and the choice of his 
will, as looking with the eyes upon the brazen serpent by the 
Israelites was their own free act. And the only thing which 
has the semblance of a gift in the whole connection is the 
remedy provided and placed before them at their own election, 
with the promise of certain relief. The Israelites had the 
remedy before them and were commanded to look for relief. 
They were to exercise their agency ; there was no work to be 
performed by them as a fitness, nor did God heal them that 
they might look; but they felt their need and looked and 
were healed. If our Lord intended to teach that saving faith 
is a gift from God, either by regeneration or working a life 
principle in the heart as a super-inducing cause of faith in his 
merits, he certainly made a failure; for his teaching is the 
most decided refutation and condemnation of that antino- 
mian sentiment of which the human mind can possibly 
conceive. What our Lord teaches here is contradicted no 
where in the Scriptures of divine truth, nor is there any 
reasonable ground for a plausible inference that faith in Christ 
is the gift of God, either conditionally or unconditionally. It 
is as truly the act of man's oWn heart and the choice of his 
will, as looking with his eyes or the motion of his hand. In 
the Old Testament scriptures we find a full confirmation of 
this opinion: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends 
of the earth : for I am God, and there is none else." Then 
we are told how they are to do this : " Let the wicked for- 
sake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and let 
him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; 
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." — Isa. xlv. 
and lv. 7. Although faith is not spoken of in so many words 
in the above quotation, it is clearly implied; for the words, 
" Look unto me and be ye saved," are in perfect keeping 
with our Saviour's explication of faith. And the last verse 
agrees with Paul's teaching everywhere : for he taught " re- 
pentance toward God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," as 
the condition of pardon and eternal life. " Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and 
let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon 
12 



170 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." God 
has provided the remedy full and complete in all things — 
divine influence and all — and placed it near and within the 
elective choice of man's heart; "that whosoever believeth in 
the Son of God, should not perish : but have everlasting life." 
Those, however, who advocate the doctrine of unconditional 
election and reprobation, assume that God requires such as 
come to him, to come with the pure affection of love in their 
hearts; their faith which receives Christ must work by love, 
and thus come to him for life. Thus we see at once that they 
beg the whole question, and claim without proof the very 
point which most of all demands it. For if the gospel plan 
of salvation is such that it requires of all those who would 
partake of its benefits and come to Christ, for them to come 
with faith which works by love ; or, in other words, with a 
heart that truly loves God, then it is certain t'hey never can 
come until they be first renewed by the Holy Spirit, and con- 
stituted children and heirs of God. For all men are by 
nature carnally minded, and do not love God; nor is it possi- 
ble for any one to love him until his heart be first washed 
from sin by the blood of the Lamb. Nor will it alter the 
question in the least degree, only to suppose a change in part, 
and a heart which only loves God in part. The love must be 
pure love to God or it is no love at all. If this were the plan 
of salvation, it would be useless for sinners to strive, or pray 
to God for help, or light, or grace in any shape ; for prayer 
without faith is of no use, and the only alternative is to live 
in utter neglect of God and salvation until God renews the 
soul. The truth in the case is, that no one can enter heaven 
without holiness; and as this cannot be attained without di- 
vine grace, God provided it fully, and offers it freely, and 
invites sinners to accept it as a gift, that they may be holy 
and enter heaven. But the qualification for the acceptance 
of saving grace is not the same as that for admission into 
heaven, as some have assumed. None but the pure in heart 
are qualified to enter heaven ; but all sinners, to whom the 
Lord offers saving grace, have that qualification which the 
plan requires and can accept ; and if they can, and do not, 
then they ought to perish. The unconverted are required to 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 171 

come to Christ with the whole heart, and commit it into his 
hands without reserve, confiding in him for salvation. And 
this they can do if he will receive them, as he has promised 
to do ; and of this we are well assured, for he receiveth sin- 
ners, and we Jews have no right to murmur against the good 
Lord. In every instance where the Lord requires duty or the 
performance of any thing of his accountable creatures, we 
must believe all that he requires to be fully possible, either 
with or without gifts. That which is impossible is never 
made our duty while it remains an impossibility; and that 
which requires gifts for its performance, is always inseparably 
connected with the gifts, so that whenever the effort is made 
the gifts are present. But we have nothing to do with gifts 
of any kind which are unconditionally given, until they are 
given, only to receive them as the earth receives the rain which 
falls upon it; consequently, if faith be the absolute gift of 
God, we cannot be responsible for it, nor can we believe with- 
out it; and if he should never bestow it we can have no sin, 
because he failed to do it. This much said, we shall notice 
one or two texts, which some have supposed to favor the idea 
that faith is the gift of God. 

See Eph. n. 8 : " For by grace are ye saved through faith ; 
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." And in 
the next verse it is said, " Not of works, lest any man should 
boast." Now, the thing which is the gift of God, and not of 
works, cannot be faith ; for no one ever attempted the attain- 
ment of faith by works. Therefore, it was unnecessary to 
attempt the correction of an error which we have no reason 
to suppose ever existed. But we have knowledge of the fact 
that men did work and strive for salvation by the deeds of 
the law : for Paul says of the Jews, " that they sought it, 
(salvation) not by faith, but, as it were, by the deeds of the 
law," and they stumbled at that stumbling-stone. But while 
they worked to attain to righteousness 'by legal performances, 
they never attempted to attain to faith by works — they had 
nothing to do with faith, and that was their sin. This is true 
of the Jews who were at Ephesus, as well as elsewhere, and 
doubtless of the Gentiles also, in some degree. The doctrine 
of the cross is, that justifying righteousness is the gift of God. 



172 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Hence, salvation, or eternal life, is the gift of God. There- 
fore, we are to understand that all these gracious gifts are to 
be received by faith and not by works ; " we are to believe on 
him that justifieth the ungodly," " that we may be found in 
Christ, not having on our own righteousness." " Therefore, 
it is of faith, that it might be by grace." Now, it must be 
manifest that where Paul speaks of the gifts of God, he does 
not intend to include faith as that gift, or any part of it. 
Faith is the instrument by which they were saved without 
works. They received the gift by faith, and were saved by 
virtue of the gift. " By grace are ye saved through faith ; 
and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God." Or, by 
grace are ye saved through faith; and that salvation not of 
yourselves, or by the works of the law; for that salvation is 
the gift of God. This exposition of the text agrees with the 
whole of New Testament teaching, and certainly with Paul 
himself, who says, " With the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto 
salvation." He believes with his own heart unto righteous- 
ness, and is saved as God promised; and then confesses with 
his mouth in the sincerity of his heart, that his salvation is 
all of grace. 

See another text, Acts xin. 48 : "And when the Gentiles 
heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the 
Lord : and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." 
It is doubted by some able scholars and critics whether this 
word rendered ordain, is correctly rendered, and indeed, Dr. 
A. Clark says it does not signify fore-ordination. But we 
have no controversy in relation to the rendering of a single 
word ; let it be ordained, as we find it. But we question the 
order of the text, and are convinced that the order of the 
Greek text has been transposed, and does not stand in the 
same order in the approved English version as in the Greek.* 
But for what reason -the order has been changed, we are 
unable to say. It is, however, safe and fair to take it in the 
same order that we find it in the Greek text, which would 
stand thus: "And when the Gentiles heard this, they were 
glad, and glorified the word of the Lord : and as many as 

* See Bagster Criticism, New Testament, in Loco. 



LECTURES OE DR. BURROW. 173 

believed were ordained to eternal life." The ordination or 
appointment to eternal life after faith in Christ, and on it as 
the appointed condition of the gospel of Christ, agrees fully 
with what is most clearly and incontrovertibly taught 
throughout the New Testament. For Jesus Christ did not 
commission his first ministers to go into all the world and 
preach, that some men, or all men, are ordained to eternal 
life, and that as many as have been ordained will believe, and 
the residue will not and cannot; but yet will be damned if 
they do not. But he commanded them to preach the gospel 
to every creature, and to promise them life on condition of 
faith. " He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: 
but he that believeth not, shall be damned." Now, we see 
that the ordination in this case turns upon faith, and 
nowhere else. "The believer shall be saved', he shall have 
eternal life if he will believe ; and he that believeth on the 
Son hath everlasting life." These are some of the teachings 
of the Holy Scriptures. But Paul presents us with the order 
in which ordination stands in the remedial system. To the 
Phillippian jailer he said : " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Ohrist and thou shalt be saved." And to the Ephesiaus : 
" In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of 
truth, the gospel of your salvation : in whom also after that 
ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, 
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption 
of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." — 
Acts xvi. 31; Eph. i. 13, 14. Here we have seen the sealing 
was after faith, and the promise of certain salvation is 
everywhere in the gospel on that condition. The ordination 
coming after faith, and eternal life being tendered and 
suspended on that condition, only establishes the doctrine of 
final perseverance, as it makes salvation certain to all who 
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are God's elect, 
and shall never come into condemnation. But if they are 
elected unto life on condition of faith in the Son of G-od, and 
ordained to that heavenly inheritance, or sealed after they 
believe, and not before; this established, will bear heavily 
upon the doctrine of unconditional election, eternal decrees, 
and the fore-ordination of any one to either life or faith. 



174 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

For it leaves man's soul free to believe or not, as he may 
choose, and makes him responsible. If he believes, he shall 
be saved by grace, and ordained to eternal life according to 
the promise. But if lie does not, it is not because God had 
ordained that he should not; "but because he would not 
come to Christ that he might have life ; " and his unbelief is 
his own voluntary sin, for which he is righteously ordained to 
eternal death. When it is assumed that a certain number of 
the race were unconditionally ordained to life eternal, it is 
also assumed that they were ordained to faith, and in due 
time God gives them faith or works it in them, and they 
believe. Consequently, as many as were ordained to eternal 
life and to faith, believed. But we have shown that this 
faith is voluntary, and precedes the ordination to eternal life. 
In all cases of which the mind of man has any just concep- 
tion, there is no possible shape which can be given to the 
argument to make man see his responsibility, and feel 
conscious guilt concerning things over which he has no 
control, no determining power, no free choice of will ; but 
is fated in his final destiny, and in all his actions, and bound 
up in stern decrees as immutable as Jehovah himself. And 
it must be manifest to all persons of any discernment, that the 
advocates of the doctrine of unconditional salvation who 
have spent much precious time in defending the doctrine, 
have been under, the necessity of undoing what they them- 
selves had done, before they could succeed in their efforts to 
benefit their fellow-beings by moving them to action, in view 
of eternal things. And however widely theologians of 
different schools may be apart in theorizing on the doctrines 
of religion, it is worthy of special notice how near they 
approximate the same point and come together, in all their 
practical efforts to excite the hearts and consciences of 
mankind to turn from their sins and seek God. For good 
men generally have more of the spirit of Jesus Christ in the 
exercise of practical, than theoretical and speculative 
religion, and are nearer the truth, and that is the best theory 
which is the best in its practical results. 

3. Here we shall notice faith in its third aspect. The third 
aspect of faith relates to practical Christianity, to a life of faith 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 175 

and good works. For it is not only true that we are justified 
by faith in Christ, which requires the consent of the heart 
and the choice of the will, but we are to live by faith upon 
the Son of God after justification and regeneration to the end 
of our pilgrimage. We are now the sons of God, " and 
because we are sons, God. hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son 
into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Being now sons of 
God, and having the spirit of Christ and the love of God in 
our hearts, " our faith works by love." These works and 
fruits flowing from the Christian heart in which dwells the 
Spirit ; and it is the Spirit that keeps faith itself alive, other- 
wise it would fail and die. Hence Paul says, " I am crucified 
with Christ, nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth 
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the 
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for 
me." " For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncir- 
cumcision availeth anything; but faith which worketh by 
love." " And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance," 
etc.— Gal. ii. 20; v. 6, 22, 23, Faith and love dwell together 
in the renewed heart, and the Spirit of Christ is the life and 
energy of both and their perpetuity is ascribed to the Spirit 
as his fruits. The first exercise of the heart is to believe the 
truth, the second is to receive and rely upon Christ for salva- 
tion. Here the Spirit renews the heart and abides iu it, and 
faith is no more exercised in view of justification but in godly 
living, which is its third exercise. But up to the time of 
justification and regeneration there is no certainty or perma- 
nency — salvation is suspended on the condition of faith ; but 
after regeneration, faith, hope, and charity abide and become 
permanent, and grace controls the heart. And the change of 
the heart, and the love of the heart, and the abiding, fruitful, 
living faith of the heart, which lives upon the Son of God, 
are the fruits of the Spirit. " Now faith is the substance of 
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;" "by 
which the elders obtained a good report, and Abel offered 
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he 
obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his 
gifts." This faith, as we plainly see, is peculiar to the children 



176 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of God and is never exercised by any others as it is here 
described. But belief of the truth and reliance on Christ are 
exercised by unrenewed persons under the awakening influence 
of the Holy Spirit, that they may become the sons of God. 
This view of faith will prevent us from confounding faith, 
which is the substance of things hoped for, which works by 
love, with that exercise of the heart with which Paul says 
man believeth unto righteousness, and which as the instru- 
mental cause, justifies from all things. There remains yet 
one more aspect in which faith may be noticed. 

4. We may notice faith as an absolute gift from God to some 
Christians, while it may be withheld from others who are 
equally the children of God. But this faith does not appear 
to justify nor in any way to be necessary to salvation ; it 
stands in the list of miraculous gifts. See 1st Cor. xii.: 
" Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not 
have you ignorant; now there are diversities of gifts, 
but the same Spirit, and there are differences of admin- 
istration, but the same Lord." "For to one is given, by the 
Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowl- 
edge, by the same Spirit; to another, faith by the same 
Spirit; to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to 
another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to 
another, discerning of spirits; to another, divers kinds of 
tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all 
these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to 
every man severally as he will." All these were extraordinary 
gifts, conferred by the Spirit for special purposes, yet none 
of them were essential to the Christian character as a meet- 
ness for heaven. For while faith was given to some, it was 
not given to all those who were favored with spiritual gifts, 
which manifestly would have been done if it had been saving 
faith in Christ. We should be very careful how we attempt 
to prove saving faith to be the absolute gift of God by a cir- 
cumstance of this kind. For whatever this gift may have 
been, or its uses, it certainly was not saving faith, and noth- 
ing in relation to saving faith can be proven by it. Those 
upon whom this, as well as the other gifts, were conferred, 
were justified by faith in Christ before these gifts were 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 177 

bestowed on them, and were as truly the children of God 
before as after. 

Man, in all ages, has been treated as a moral free agent, as 
well since as before the fall; under both law and gospel, and 
throughout the moral administration of Jehovah, in all the pre- 
cepts published, the proclamations made, the calls and invi- 
tations given, and the corrections and punishments inflicted, 
God has established this truth, that man is a fit subject of 
rewards and punishments, and is held accountable for his 
conduct. And to place this fact beyond the shadow of a 
doubt, the Judge of all the earth, who will do right, " has 
appointed a day of general judgment, when all men will be 
judged in righteousness by that Man whom he hath appointed 
heir of all things, of which he hath given assurance in that he 
hath raised him from the dead." And we know of no period 
in the world's history when man was not competent of reach- 
ing life under the divine administrations of mercy. It 
certainly was so under the very first part of heaven's dealings 
with man that he could have kept his first estate, but when 
he failed he was held responsible for his conduct. But since 
he rendered himself incapable of attaining to life by obedience 
to the law; while he was held no less responsible and a 
proper subject of rewards and punishments, that he might not 
die without remedy, the miraculous scheme of free grace was 
introduced to meet the case since the fall. This scheme of 
mercy, by its provisions and helps, brought life as fully within 
the reach of man's free will and elective choice since the fall, 
as confirmation in a state of holiness was within the reach of 
Adam's free choice before the fall ; and man is no less free 
and responsible now than then. "For what the law could 
not do in that it was weak, through the flesh, God, sending 
his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin con- 
demned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law 
might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after 
the Spirit." The very design of the plan was to provide for 
the case in hand as it was before the divine mind, and still to 
retain man's moral freedom as fully as it ever was, and where 
there was weakness and incompetency, to provide all neces- 
sary helps. This opinion is fully sustained by the whole 



178 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

volume of Revelation, and certainly by the development of 
the Trinity of persons in the Godhead. The unrighteous can 
not approach the holy Father by obedience to his holy law, 
but the medium of approach is through the Mediator, who 
tulfilled the law and met its penal sanction for the race, and 
laid salvation at their very door with his own hand. And 
then to remove all impediments out of the way of man's ap- 
proach to God and make it fully possible, the Holy Spirit 
affords his agency and pours his light into the minds of men 
to convince them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, 
and points them to the Son of God and his righteousness as 
God's own appointed remedy, and holds it out for their volun- 
tary acceptance with the promise of life. But on what 
condition is life tendered, and what preparation of soul does 
God require ? He tells us himself on what condition and what 
the qualification is: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
thou shalt be saved." And the qualification is, to be a 
redeemed, unholy, condemned, enlightened, penitent sinner, 
willing and anxious to be saved on God's own plan of free 
grace. And moral agents are never qualified to come to 
Christ by being first regenerated; he was not sent for the 
purpose of saving the righteous, but sinners. And how are 
sinners to be regenerated and qualified to approach the 
Father, except through the Son and his righteousness. They 
must be first, in the order of the plan, justified from all things ; 
legal matters must be adjusted first, and then regeneration 
and peace with God. But regeneration is never spoken of in 
the gospel of Christ but on the ground of justification, nor is 
justification known in the case of competent adult agents but 
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The plan is faith, justifi- 
cation, and then regeneration and the sealed title to eternal 
life. " Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ." It may be thought by 
some to be a small matter whether regeneration or justifica- 
tion be placed first; and truly it is with those who deny faith 
as the gospel condition of salvation, and who will have all 
things to turn upon God's sovereign agency irrespective of 
man's moral agency. But to us it is a momentous matter, 
whether man or his Maker is to blame for the sin of unbelief 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 179 

and the loss and ruin of man's soul. "We hold that when the 
soul is regenerated it is saved, or made certain of heaven ; and 
if this is done before faith, it is before justification as a matter 
of course, and the entire economy of divine mercy is reversed 
and thrown into utter confusion. If man is saved before he 
is justified by faith, as he must be if faith is the result of 
renovation, of what use is it, and where is the good sense in 
preaching repentance and faith, and promising life to such as 
believe, or threatening death to unbelievers. We are as much 
authorized to preach salvation to sinners and promise them 
eternal life independent of Christ and his atonement altogether, 
as to do it on any other plan than that of faith in Christ. As 
before stated, we know of no salvation for the race of man 
but through Christ and by faith in his name, and all who 
would have life must come to him for it, and as many as come 
relying upon him shall have it; but such as will not come, 
the wrath of God will abide upon them: and he who made 
their salvation possible will charge their destruction upon their 
own souls : '" That they would not come to him that they 
might have life; " and will laugh at their calamity, and mock 
when their fear cometh upon them as a whirlwind. 



180 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



LECTURE XI.— SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF THE 
DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION. 



In the wonderful plan of salvation justification has its 
prominence as one of the most important doctrines of the 
Bible. In the chain of divine truth it may be considered 
the connecting link between the law and the gospel, justice 
and mercy. It has a close connection with the atonement 
of the Lord Jesus Christ on the one hand, and the work of 
sanctification on the other. While the design of the plan 
of salvation is to give a complete qualification for and title 
to heaven, the act of justification sets forth and shows the 
legality of the work, and exhibits the righteousness and 
justice of God in the glorious plan. It has been defined 
thus : " An act of God's free grace, in which he pardoneth 
all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only 
for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received 
by faith alone." We are not made positively righteous by 
justification, nor can we be declared to be so on any other 
ground than that of the righteousness of another being 
made ours in some way; nor can our sins be righteously 
forgiven unless the meritorious cause accepted in our room 
and stead be made ours by imputation or otherwise. 

Justification is a forensic term and the act is judicial. It 
regards the rights of the eternal throne as well as the com- 
plete and eternal salvation of the justified. By it, therefore, 
the claims of the righteous law of God which stand in the 
way of our salvation are met and adjusted, and our right to 
all the blessings of the gospel of the Son of God is legalized 
and settled and declared to be right. We are, therefore, not 
to leave out of sight the righteous character of God in treating 
on the doctrine of justification. That stands first and consti- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 181 

tutes the main pillar of the doctrine. God in justifying the 
ungodly must be true and sustain his own righteous charac- 
ter. As Paul says (Rom. in. 26), " That he might be just 
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." God, it 
is seen, must be just in the act of justifying. As the justifier 
is holy, just, and true, how can he, in perfect unison with 
his character, justify such as are the very opposite of all this? 
He cannot sustain his character and declare them to have 
done right, but he can declare his good will and pleasure in 
what his Son has done for them, and accept of them for his 
sake and in consideration of what he has done, and declare 
their right to it in conformity with the great scheme of salva- 
tion by free grace. If it is true that our sins are all par- 
doned in justification, it must be true that they are all 
blotted out and will be remembered against us no more. 
For if they should be again remembered and brought up 
against us, we should be again condemned, and must be again 
justified or we could not inherit the kingdom of heaven. 
We have no evidence from the Bible or reason to think 
that any one is justified in the same sense more than once. 
Yet we believe that justified persons commit sins again and 
again, and being penitent are pardoned. Justification, there- 
fore, must signify more than remission of sins. It must 
take in the ground or meritorious cause of pardon also. 

We shall first, then, consider the meritorious and procuring 
cause of justification. In vain may we search for its merito- 
rious and procuring cause, or any blessing whatever in the 
creature who is condemned and unholy. It must, therefore, 
be admitted by all who adhere to the Bible, that the merito- 
rious cause of justification is to be sought for some where 
else than in man, "for all men are guilty before God; there 
is none righteous, no not one." This high consideration can 
only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, " who is the Lord 
our righteousness." If all the race are guilty and con- 
demned, if it is true that any one is in need of justification 
in order to holiness and happiness, it must be equally true 
that all need it, and that condemnation must be removed 
from them or they must and will sink to hell. For we main- 
tain by the authority of God's Word, " that without holiness 



182 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

no one shall see the Lord." From the connection and rela- 
tion which justification sustains to the atonement of Christ 
on the one hand, and to the work of sanctification by the 
Holy Spirit on the other, we cannot see how any condemned 
person can be sanctified before he is first justified, any more 
than we can see how it can be sufficiency done without and 
independent of the atonement. For if justification has any 
place in the system of truth and free grace, its place is 
between these two, and as no one can be sanctified except by 
the blood of Christ, so none can be sanctified by it unless 
God first recognize his right to that benefit and he is first 
justified. Legal matters must first be settled between his 
soul and the government of God, by whose law he is held 
justly condemned and liable to punishment, before he can be 
purified by virtue of the atonement. The contrary doctrine 
must, and certainly does, set aside the doctrine of jutifica- 
tion altogether, or place it where it is of no use. 

As to the justifying consideration or meritorious cause of 
it, we can only arrive at a correct knowledge of the perfec- 
tion thereof by first arriving at a correct knowledge of the 
perfect law which held us under condemnation. But it will 
be sufficient to say that it must in every way be as perfect as 
the divine law, and in every way calculated to meet the 
extreme case of mankind, so as to restore to him who may 
be justified, first, the righteousness of the law, and, secondly, 
the nature of the law, which is the image of God. In 
speaking of the meritorious and procuring cause of justifica- 
tion, it matters not whether we call it the righteousness of 
Christ or the justifying consideration, the meaning is the 
same, and it will be understood that we hold that both the 
active and passive obedience of Christ were required to 
constitute it, and that they both enter into the very nature 
of it. By his active obedience is meant his obedient and 
spotless life. By his passive obedience, his voluntary and 
satisfactory death for us. 

As we are justified for and in consideration of the right- 
eousness of Christ, it may be well for us to inquire whether 
or not he consummated that righteousness by his passive 
obedience alone or by both the active and passive? "Christ 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 183 

came to seek and to save that which was lost." He came to 
do nothing for himself — all was for sinners. If the law 
under which man was made and placed required nothing of 
him before he sinned and fell, if it demanded no personal 
obedience, then we might conclude that Christ could fulfil 
all righteousness by his sufferings and death. But if, on the 
contrary, it demanded personal obedience of the perfect 
kind, then we are bound to believe that no sufferings of any 
kind and degree could occur, to all eternity, to so fulfil and 
meet the demand of the violated law as to constitute a com- 
plete righteousness, which would sustain the justice of God 
in justifying the ungodly. Adam, while on trial, failed in 
his personal obedience and incurred the penalty of the law, 
and if it had been inflicted upon him his sufferings would 
have been endless, but never would have merited any thing, 
or constituted any part of the righteousness of Christ as our 
mediator and redeemer, though " holy, harmless, undefiled, 
and separate from sinners," might have suffered for him and 
in his room and stead. But was that all the law demanded ? 
It was all in the way of suffering, but nothing in the way 
of redeeming him from the curse of the law and constituting 
a just ground of his salvation, when taken separate and 
apart from active personal obedience. The law never could 
have been satisfied by sufferings in the person of a substitute, 
as it could not in that of the actual offender. If, as we have 
seen, personal and perfect obedience was required of him, it 
must be rendered either by the substitute or the offender, or 
it will punish forever. Christ, we maintain, in redeeming 
man must be man as well as God, and be under the same law 
that man was, and must begin where man began, and per- 
sonally and perfectly keep and obey the law in all its require- 
ments, and not fail in one jot or tittle. Adam, as already 
stated, was on trial, and while his agency was being tested in 
view of the confirmation, though he was pure, he sinned and 
fell. Hence, the second Adam, who is the Lord from heaven, 
in coming forward to redeem takes his place under the same 
law and renders to it all that it required of him, and was 
tempted of the same devil, but he sustained the trial fully 
and fulfilled that part in which the first man failed. Then 



184 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

his Father said, " This is my beloved son in whom I am well 
pleased." Christ said to John, " Thus it becometh us to 
fulfil all righteousness." — Matt. in. 15. And to his disciples 
he said, " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or 
the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For 
verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one 
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." 
— Matt. v. 17, 18. We are compelled to think that Christ, 
in speaking of fulfiling the law and all righteousness, meant 
more than what was to be suffered by him upon the cross. 
He meant full and complete obedience to the preceptive and 
full satisfaction to the penal sanction of the law. 

Having taken the position that the active obedience of 
Christ entered into and constituted a part of the righteous- 
ness which he wrought out to be, and which is, the merito- 
rious cause and ground of our justification, and that he 
began this work where Adam began, and under the same 
law, and that he sustained the trial in which the first man 
failed, we deem it fit and right to give further proof. Gal. 
iv. 4, 5 : " But when the fullness of the time was come, God 
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to 
redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive 
the adoption of sons." Phil. n. 6-8 : " Who being in the 
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 
but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the 
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men ; and 
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and 
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." 
See Heb. n. 17, 18: " Wherefore in all things it behooved 
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a 
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God ; 
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people ; for in that 
he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor 
them that are tempted." 

We have seen that he was a man, like unto his brethren, 
and under the law with them, and that it was fit and right 
to be so, that he might be a suitable priest in things per- 
taining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the 
people. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 185 

It is, moreover, stated that he was tempted while doing 
the work which his Father sent him to do, and the reason 
assigned for it is that he might succor the tempted ones. 
Why was that temptation mentioned in connection with his 
other sufferings and death, as the ground of affording suc- 
cor to his tempted people, if it did not belong to and consti- 
tute part of his work and perfect obedience which he 
rendered for us? As certain as Adam failed, who was made 
in the likeness of God, when he was tempted, so certain will 
all men fail and fall unless Christ has stood the trial for 
them, and they can have the benefit of it on as good terms 
as they can have that of his death. All who are well 
instructed in the doctrines of the Bible must see that if our 
trial was not sustained by Christ, and if we do not derive 
succor, strength, and certainty by virtue thereof, we shall be 
as much more liable to fall as we may be less perfect than he 
was when God made him. Christ could have come from 
heaven and suffered and died long before he did, and with- 
out ever having been tempted by the devil, or having ren- 
dered any active obedience to the law whatever, if barely to 
render passive abedience, by suffering the penalty of the law, 
had been all that the law required, and would have been amply 
sufficient to justify us and constitute a firm and safe founda- 
tion against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. But 
that was not all which he came to do for us, for he is called 
the second Adam in the Bible, and no good reason can be 
assigned for it other than that he took the place of the first, 
and represented him and all that he represented when he 
was on trial, and actually obeyed all the precepts and fully 
sustained the trial. This was essentially necessary before 
God, as a righteous being, who could receive his penal offering, 
shorten the sufferings of the sufferer, and grant repentance 
and remission of sins in his name. " He was a man of sor- 
rows and acquainted with grief," " oppressed and afflicted," 
etc. And w T hy all this if he was doing nothing for us more 
than barely setting an example of patient endurance ? and how 
we are to overcome, while his obedience in all other respects 
was for himself? God would not have required suffering 
of any kind in the person of his well beloved Son if 
13 



186 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

the great work of redemption could have been as well con- 
summated without it. Surely not. Then, as he did person- 
ally obey, and did suffer, and was tempted and tried at the 
time, we may reasonably conclude that it was to provide a 
meritorious ground of succor for his tempted people. Now, 
we know that every blessing flows to us fron the atonement 
of Christ, and all the blessings which flow to us from that 
source must be incorporated in the meritorious cause and 
ground of our justification. But for this our justification 
would avail but little in the day of temptation. The only 
reason which we can assign why Christians do not fall for 
every impropriety which they commit, as Adam certainly 
did when he was on trial for the very first sin which he 
committed, is that when they received Christ, the second 
Adam, by faith, they received his full obedience, which he 
rendered to the law, and while they are justified but once, 
they are often forgiven their sins, but always on the same 
ground. It is in consideration of the righteousness of Christ, 
constituted by his active and passive obedience, which covers 
the entire case. We feel certain that the law did require 
active obedience of Adam. If so, its claims could not be 
met and the righteousness thereof be complete, so as to 
justify us from all things without the active obedience of 
Christ, as we have said. Paul, however, says, " Christ is 
the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believ- 
eth." — Rom. x. 4. 

By the foregoing passage we are not to understand that 
Christ abolished the law, or that it is abolished by us when 
we believe in him, but that when we believe in him we 
receive the full measure of righteousness which the law 
demands; "and he is made of God unto us wisdom, and 
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." The 
active obedience of Christ can no more be separated from 
the law-fulfilling righteousness, without detriment to the 
plan of salvation, than vitality from life without destroying 
it. And, indeed, we can as readily conceive of life in the 
absence of all vitality as of righteousness without active 
obedience. Hence, the scheme which separates the active 
obedience of Christ from his passive in the work of redemp- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 187 

tion, and assumes that he fulfilled all righteousness by the 
latter, and that the former was not as essential as the latter 
in constituting the meritorious ground and cause of justifica- 
tion, saps the foundation of the Christian religion, and is at 
once as absurd as it is anti-scriptural, and has no support in 
the Word of God. It proceeds, however, upon the supposi- 
tion that if the personal righteousness of Christ entered into 
the nature of the work of redemption, there was no need of 
his sacrificial righteousness, for that of itself was complete. 
To which it will be sufficient to reply, that if man had not 
by transgression incurred the penalty of the law, that would 
have been all sufficient ; but being recognized as a transgres- 
sor of the law, and held justly exposed to its weighty 
penalty, no blessing of any kind whatever could justly and 
righteously be given without satisfaction to the penal sanc- 
tion and the removal of the curse. 

Next, it has been urged that if Christ's active obedience 
enters into the nature of and constitutes part of our justify- 
ing righteousness, that we would then be as righteous as he 
was, and inasmuch as he never sinned, it would then appear 
that we never sinned, and there would be no demand for the 
shedding of his blood. This reasoning, like all other of the 
kind, has the elements of death and destruction in its com- 
position, and while it aims at the destruction of antagonis- 
tical opinions, it only works its own, and flies off in vapor. 

The gospel expedient was designed for sinners, for guilty, 
condemned children of wrath, and while it is as true as the 
Bible, that it was designed to make them holy in such way 
as to maintain the honor and rights of the eternal throne, 
and restore to them the image of God and bring them up to 
the purity of the law, yet it never was contemplated by the 
plan to make it appear that they never were sinners, because 
they are justified by the righteousness of one who never 
sinned. Nor does any such consequence result from the 
doctrine that the full and complete righteousness of Christ is 
made ours. But that can never be proven. If it, therefore, 
could be made plausible, it, nevertheless, is at war with the 
Bible, which evidently teaches that justified persons will, 
by the grace of God, be raised to the standard of perfection, 



188 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

which is the law, and the measure of that law is the right- 
eousness of Christ. That is its height and depth, its length 
and breadth. When we, therefore, receive Christ we put on 
Christ "and are found in him." Then, as Paul says, "we 
all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the 
Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, 
even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 

Having shown that the active and passive obedience of 
Christ constitute the meritorious consideration of our justifi- 
cation, we shall next speak of imputed righteousness. In speak- 
ing of the righteousness of Christ being imputed to us, we 
shall use the words imputed, given, granted, made over, set 
to our account, all with the same intent and to convey the 
same idea as impute. Our position here is that the right- 
eousness which Christ wrought out by his active and passive 
obedience is imputed to us, and is the entire and only merito- 
rious cause and consideration with God of our justification, 
and that nothing else enters into its nature'so as to constitute 
any part of it in the way of merit. Those who object to the 
doctrine of imputed righteousness do, nevertheless, admit 
of the imputation of something and of some meritorious 
ground of pardon. This they are Compelled to do, or 
dispense with the vicarious sufferings and death of Christ. 
But while they do this, they either hold that faith is that 
imputed something which is not meritorious, or they hold 
that the meritorious cause of pardon is not imputed to us. 
They admit of the impartation of the benefits, while they 
deny that the meritorious ground and procuring-cause of 
these benefits are, in the sense of imputation, made ours. 
They wage war with the doctrine as a form of words, while 
they are compelled to admit it in substance. For no sooner 
than they admit that there is some meritorious ground of 
justification out of the creature, and that all the benefits 
thereof are granted and flow to him in justification. This 
being admitted, all is granted in substance; for when we 
have all the benefits, all the vitality of any thing, there can 
be nothing wanting, unless it be the name and shadow. 
While, therefore, it is granted that there is a meritorious 
and procuring-cause of pardon and eternal salvation in and 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 189 

through Christ, and nowhere else, and that we sinners are 
saved for the sake of what he has done for us, all is granted, 
as before stated. Then our salvation is founded on merit, 
and that was procured by Christ, and for and in considera- 
tion thereof we are justified and saved. The real difference 
and matter of controversy is not whether all the benefits of 
Christ's active and passive obedience flow to us, but it seems 
mainly to be whether or not the acts and doings of Christ 
become our acts and doings. Now, we only contend that 
the merited benefits are made ours, while the acts and doings 
are Christ's. What are the benefits ? Manifestly, the first 
must be a justifying-consideration, or righteousness, to 
legalize our salvation ; and, secondly, sanctifying grace to 
make us holy. It will be seen that all objections to imputed 
righteousness are mere quibbles, and waste themselves in an 
effort to distinguish between the acts and doings of Christ ; 
and the result thereof, like the effort to divide and sunder 
Christ's active from his passive obedience in the work of 
redemption, for no better a reason than that both could not 
be required to fulfil the law, as each was perfect. Which is 
true? Both are perfect. But while one was a fulfilment of 
the preceptive part of the law, the other was of the penalty. 
And both were equally essential, as the one could not super- 
sede the other. They constitute one whole and complete 
work. In like manner, the objection against imputed right- 
eousness proceeds by alleging that the acts of one cannot be 
made the acts of another; that, consequently, Christ's right- 
eousness could not be imputed to us, etc., and then admits 
all that is contended for, when it is granted that we are 
righteously as well as graciously saved by virtue of what 
another has done. What if it should be said that the sin of 
Adam was not imputed to his posterity on the hypothesis 
that the acts of one cannot be imputed to another ? Of what 
avail would such caviling be? Is it not a mournful truth 
that his sinful action has had a most fearful influence upon 
his descendants? That fact stands to tell for itself, though 
the world should rise up to contend in hostile array. Now, 
it matters not whether we believe that Adam's sin was or 
was not imputed to his posterity in the strict sense of that 



190 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. , 

term, the truth is that the world of mankind is involved in 
sin and condemnation, and if they did not bring this evil 
upon themselves by their own action, and that, too, before 
they were born, then it must have been done by the action 
of another, who sustained such a relation to his descendants 
as that his conduct had a real bearing upon them. 

This being thus far true, might it not be equally true that 
the actions and doings of another head and representa- 
tive in the same family and in the same government, might 
have some influence for good upon the same family and 
upon the same principle of representation? Whether men 
believe it or not, the Bible fully proves it in both cases. 
Rom. v. 19: "For as by one man's disobedience many were 
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be 
made righteous." The very least that can be said on this 
passage is that the action of one had an influence upon all 
for evil, while the obedience of the other has an influence 
for good, and by it many are to be made righteous. In 
2 Cor. v. 21, Paul says, "For he hath made him to be sin 
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the right- 
eousness of God in him." This has the appearance of impu- 
tation. First, Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin (or a 
sin-offering) for us. Here he bare our sins in his body on 
the tree (cross). Secondly, the reason assigned is that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in him. The 
righteousness of God is to be ours by faith. See Rom. x. 
3, 4: "For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and 
going about to establish their own righteousness, have not 
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God, for 
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one 
that believeth." We can at once see from these texts that 
they speak of a more perfect righteousness than any of the 
Jews had, or could have by any obedience which they could 
render to the law, which is denominated the righteousness 
of God, and not only so, but they were blamed for not 
submitting thereunto. In what way or sense were they to 
submit to that righteousness? Was it barely by admitting 
its superiority ? or were they required to receive it as their 
law-fulfiling righteousness ? Most evidently the latter. "For 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 191 

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one 
that believeth." Nothing can be plainer than that the 
righteousness of Christ so becomes ours that we are 
accounted righteous before God. For and in consideration 
of it, whether the doctrine of imputed righteousness be 
admitted or not, he must become the Lord our righteousness, 
and we be so found in him and clothed with him. In 1 Cor. 
i. 30, 31, Paul says, " But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, 
who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and 
sanctification, and redemption : that according as it Is writ- 
ten, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." See also 
Phil. in. 9: "And be found in him, not having mine own 
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through 
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by 
faith." Such language as the above cannot well be inter- 
preted to mean any thing less than imputed righteousness. 
We are to be found in Christ, having on the righteousness 
of God, which is declared to be that for which we are jus- 
tified in his sight. Kom. in. 20-22 : " Therefore by the 
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; 
for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the right- 
eousness of God without the law is manifested, being wit- 
nessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness 
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon 
all them that believe." 

Here imputed righteousness is taught again with great 
plainness. The apostle says that no flesh can be justified by 
the deeds of the law, but declares that the righteousness of 
God is the justifying consideration; that even the very 
righteousness of God was manifested and witnessed, or 
declared by the law and the prophets to be unto all and 
upon all them that believe ; yes, he says it is upon all them 
that believe — upon them as a garment. Therefore, they are 
found in Christ, not having on their own righteousness, 
which is the law, but the righteousness of the Lord Jesus 
Christ as a spotless robe. And it is for and in consideration 
of this same righteouness, and this alone, that they are 
justified, call it by what name you please. 

Again, it is said, "Being justified freely by his grace, 



192 • MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God 
hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, 
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are 
past through the forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at 
this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the 
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." — Rom. in. 
24-26. It appears to us next to impossible for any candid 
Christian to deny the imputation of the righteousness of 
Christ, when it is declared of God to be ours, and that we 
are justified for it as a meritorious consideration, and our 
sins all forgiven. But it is also declared in the same connec- 
tion that we are freely justified by grace. This proves that 
the righteousness of Christ for which we are justified is 
a gift from God to us ; it is accounted ours whether it is 
given or imputed, and God graciously makes it ours, and 
looks upon it as the high consideration of our justification. 
It is perfect and equal to the demands of the law by which 
we are condemned. Then the reason assigned for it is that 
God who justifies us might be just in so doing. 

Those who reject the doctrine of imputed righteousness, 
and deny that the rigteousness of Christ is in any way made 
ours so as to constitute the righteous ground of our justifi- 
cation, do notwithstanding contend that faith is imputed for 
righteousness, and that this is the only thing which, in the 
form of righteousness, is, imputed to any one. We shall 
here give some of the passages of Scripture upon which the 
advocates of^this doctrine mainly rely. Rom. iv. 3, 5, 23, 24: 
" For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and 
it was counted unto him for righteousness. . . . But to 
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth 
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 
£Tow it was not written for his sake alone, that it was 
imputed to him ; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, 
if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the 
dead." We learn from the above that we, in becoming the 
spiritual children of Abraham, are justified in the same way 
and for and in consideration of the same thing he was. If 
faith alone, the act of believing, was what God imputed to 
him for righteousness, the same is true in every case. But 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 193 

we shall see that faith is only the instrument of righteous- 
ness and not the thing itself. And as it is the instrument 
of righteousness, it is also the instrument of justification, 
and not the consideration for. which we are justified before 
God and in the eye of the law ; for it must be manifest to 
all who well consider this subject, that faith does not 
approach the law for justification directly, but indirectly. 
It first goes to Christ and receives him, and with him what 
he did in meeting and satisfying the claims of the law. If 
faith were to approach the pure law of God alone without 
the consideration it demands, it would suffer for such pre- 
sumption, but if it first goes to Christ, then it finds all that the 
law demands. Christ, then, is between the law aud the sinner, 
and as he by faith trusts in him alone he is justified. Now, as 
justification is a forensic term and relates to law and justice, 
it may be asked at this place, What is that consideration 
which justice is willing to receive ? Is it faith empty-handed 
and alone? or is it Christ? Christ, most evidently, received 
by faith and presented by that instrument or hand to the 
law. The question then turns upon this point: If faith is 
the consideration which meets the demands of the law and 
hushes into silence its thundering curses, then faith is the 
meritorious cause and sum total of our justification. But 
if, on the contrary, faith dare not approach divine justice 
except in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, then it must 
be plain that he is what the law demands, and if that is 
righteousness, he must be that righteousness. Indeed, faith 
without Christ has neither soul nor body; it has no merit in 
it, and the law does not recognize it as any part of sauctifi- 
cation ; it is poor and penniless, and has nothing and can 
never have any thing, in any shape or form, to all eternity, 
that would or could be any satisfaction to divine justice or 
constitute any just and righteous ground of justification. 
No, nothing will do but Christ and him crucified. Then a 
man might as well talk of life without vitality as to speak 
of having righteousness by faith, without Christ as the 
righteousness of faith. He is the only righteousness of 
faith. Therefore, it is not faith that is righteousness, but 
Christ. And truth claims and boasts of no other. Now, 



194 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

separate Christ and faith and you have the subject analyzed. 
The righteousness is all in Christ and none in faith. Now, 
when it is said that faith was counted to Abraham for ri^ht- 
eousness, it was the righteousness of faith — that which faith 
receives, which is Christ. Else how can we interpret such 
Scripture declarations as the following: " And be found in 
him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the 
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the right- 
eousness of God by faith," It is as clear as a sunbeam that 
the righteousness here is called the righteousness of God, 
while faith is only the instrument by which it is appropriated. 
In Eom. x. 4: " For Christ is the end of the law for right- 
eousness to every one that believeth." Christ is the right- 
eousness of faith. Then, at the tenth verse : " For with the 
heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth 
confession is made unto salvation." These texts prove 
Christ to be the law-fulfiling righteousness, and faith the 
active instrument that approaches unto it. We shall now 
see that it was righteousness that was imputed to Abraham 
at the time he believed. Horn. iv. 11: "And he received 
the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the 
faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised, that he might 
be the father of all them that believe, though they be not 
circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them 
also." If righteousness had not been imputed unto Abra- 
ham, how could it be said of others that it was imputed unto 
them in like manner (also) as it was to him? It may well 
be said that those who only have faith imputed to them for 
righteousness as the meritorious and procuring-cause of their 
justification, that they will fall from grace, but those who 
are justified by faith, instrumentally and virtually by the 
imputation of Christ's righteousness, will not, for their lives 
will be found hid with Christ in God in the day of the 
Lord's coming. " Who shall lay any thing to the charge of 
God's elect? It is God that jnstifieth. Who is he that 
condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen 
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
maketh intercession for us." — Rom. vin. 33, 34. 

Here we deem it expedient to make some special remarks on 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 195 

the condition or instrumental cause of justification. This we 
have already anticipated. In speaking of the condition or 
instrumental cause of justification or of any gospel blessing, 
two points in theology are referred to which are to be 
specially guarded. First, the agency of the receiver, and, 
second, the honor of the giver. The condition must be such 
as to throw the full weight of responsibility upon the crea- 
ture, and at the same time cut off all ground of boasting by 
magnifying the gift and glorifying the giver. Man, as a 
guilty, condemned creature, cannot be saved in any way 
which does not sustain the character and government of God. 
Neither can he be saved irrespective of his agency. The 
Bible teaches that salvation is of grace alone, and at the 
same time this grace must be received by him in such a way 
as to secure all the glory of his salvation to God. God's 
plan, therefore, was that his Son should make full and com- 
plete satisfaction to the law in the place of man and for him. 
And then man, on his part, instead of doing works of merit 
to purchase that benefit, is to receive Christ and with him 
all that he has done for him. Then God accepts him in 
view of law and justice in his Son, and for and in considera- 
tion of what he is and has done. The law is satisfied, God 
is just in the act of justifying on that ground, and the justi- 
fied person stands firm upon it as upon a rock, and rejoices 
in the hope of the glory of God, crying, " Grace, grace unto 
it." Here "mercy and truth meet together, righteousness 
and peace kiss each other." 

God, in his plan of salvation by grace, appointed faith as 
the condition of the gift with such as are competent agents, 
that salvation might be of grace and the law be fulfilled and 
established at the same time. See Rom. in. 31: "Do we 
then make void the law through faith ? God forbid : yea, 
we establish the law ; " and Rom. iv. 16 : " Therefore it is 
of faith, that it might be by grace." Then the Apostle Paul 
asks, in another place, u "Where is boasting then ? It is 
excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay; but by the 
law of faith." Faith is not a legal act required by the law, 
but the gospel-condition of salvation by free grace. There- 
fore, it never can boast of any works or legal performances, 



196 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

for if by it any obedience is rendered to the law which is 
acceptable with God, it is performed by grace alone, which 
is received as a free gift. Faith, as the instrument of salva- 
tion, precedes justification, and justification precedes sancti- 
fication, and sanctification, glorification, io the order of 
the plan. If so, none can be glorified without justification, 
and none can be justified without faith. John in. 18: "He 
that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believ- 
eth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed 
in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Thia one 
passage, while it sustains the foregoing position, at once dis- 
proves and forever overthrows the doctrine of eternal justifi- 
cation, with all its legitimate concomitants. 

With a few quotations more from the Word of God we 
may close our remarks on faith as the instrument of justifi- 
cation. See John in. 16: "For God so loved the world, 
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here 
the condition of life eternal is laid down plainly. Acts xni. 
38, 39: "Be it known unto you, therefore, men and breth- 
ren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgive- 
ness of sins. And by him, all that believe are justified from 
all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law 
of Moses." Condemnation abides upon personal offenders 
while ever they continue in unbelief, consequently they can 
have no peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ while 
in that condition. Faith must go to Christ first, then cometh 
peace. Rom. v. 1, 2: "Therefore being justified by faith, 
we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: by 
whom also we have access by faith unto this grace, wherein 
we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." 

There remains one more point to be noticed before we 
close this lecture. Are infants condemned? and if so, can 
they be saved without the removal of that condemnation? 
That they are condemned in some sense is generally admitted 
by all orthodox divines. That they are sanctified and saved, 
dying in a state of infancy, is also admitted, and by us most 
firmly believed. If they are condemned, they cannot be 
saved in that state of condemnation. If that condemnation 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 197 

is first removed, it must be by virtue of the vicarious suffer- 
ings and death of Christ. But the inquiry is, In what way 
is it removed — through what process and by what instru- 
mentality ? Surely it cannot be in the ordinary way of justi- 
fying adults, who are personally guilty before God, for they 
are required to repent and believe, and infants are incompe- 
tent to do either, and to suspend their salvation upon any 
condition or contingency whatever, would be in effect shut- 
ting them out of heaven and consigning them to perdition. 
There remains, therefore, to us only one of two ways in 
which it can be scripturally done. Either it must be removed 
at death by the sovereign, gracious influence and power of the 
Holy Ghost, or it was done by the vicarious sufferings and 
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We prefer, however, to say 
that it was done by the latter, as the work of sanctification 
differs from that of justification. If the removal of depravity 
from the soul of an infant by the sanctifying power of the 
Holy Spirit could be denominated justification, the removal 
of corruption from the heart of an adult after he has been 
justified by faith, might be so denominated, and it would 
appear that he had been twice justified. The position which 
we advocate is plainly this : that whatever the condemnation 
might be which Adam, the first federal head and representa- 
tive, brought on his posterity by disobedience, was removed 
by the obedience of Christ, the second federal head and 
representative, and all infants come into the world under a 
dispensation of mercy. Though depraved, they are in a 
salvable state. For proof, see Rom. v. 18: " Therefore as 
by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to con- 
demnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift 
came upon all men unto justification of life." 

The condemnation was brought upon all by one man's 
offense, and removed by the righteousness of Christ. For it 
is said the free gift came upon all unto justification of life. 
That which wa3 brought upon us on sovereign principles, 
was removed on sovereign principles; so that God, on sover- 
eign, gracious principles, can righteously sanctify and give 
eternal life to all that die in a state of non-age on the same 
principles, irrespective of agency or conditions on their part. 



198 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

The judgment of God being just, could not pass upon 
Adam and his unborn posterity in the same sense and to the 
same extent. The difference must be that the one is recog- 
nized as personally responsible ; the others are not, and could 
only be reached by the law through the federal head and 
representative. This being the only medium through which 
the posterity of Adam could be legally recognized, it must 
be plain that his condemnation differs from theirs as widely 
as his relation to the law is seen to be. His condemnation 
was, first, for a voluntary personal sin; and, secondly, that 
of his nature, which became opposed to G-od. The con- 
demnation of his posterity was that of a depraved, unholy 
nature, and nothing appears to be necessary in order to their 
sanctification, but full satisfaction to the same law, rendered 
for them and placed to their account. This was done by 
Jesus Christ. As the sin of Adam was, therefore, personal 
and voluntary, his condemnation may first be denominated 
personal condemnation. His nature, however, at the same 
time became uuholy and opposed to God, which was 
condemned by his pure law also. Both of these must be 
removed from him or them on whom they rest, before 
the subject or subjects of them can be righteously 
admitted into heaven. The removal of depravity from the 
soul is the work of the Spirit, and is called sanctification. 
The removal of condemnation for personal offenses com- 
mitted against the law is the work of the Father, and is 
called justification, and differs from the former in that the 
former removes the effect of sin, whereas the work of justifi- 
cation removes the guilt and legalizes the work of sanctifi- 
cation by the Spirit. In all cases, therefore, where personal 
offenses are committed by competent agents, repentance and 
faith are required of them, which must be personal and 
voluntary, before and in order to justification, after which 
sanctification takes place. But in no case does God require 
repentance or faith (so far as we know) of such as are not 
actual personal sinners in order to any gospel blessing. All 
may be given graciously and freely on sovereign principles, 
irrespective of their agency. Then, as the posterity of Adam 
were not and could not be personal actors, as their father 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 199 

was, they could not be personal sinners, as lie was, and could 
not be personally condemned. He could and did feel a 
consciousness of guilt in his soul. They could not and do not 
feel any such thing. Yet they are evidently involved, and 
that by his offense. Therefore, we choose to call their 
offense and condemnation, which was brought upon them by 
their federal head and representative, federal, in contradis- 
tinction to that of the federal head himself. On that ground 
we make a distinction between the instrumental cause of his 
justification and that of his infant posterity. 

The instrumental cause of his justification must be a per- 
sonal act (though divine influence is necessary), and as free 
as that which at first involved him in condemnation, while 
the instrumental cause of infant justification is to be sought 
and found alone in the acts and doings of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, who is their second federal head and representative. 
And as the evil of the first federaj. act could, did to a certain 
extent, settle upon the posterity of Adam, so the good result- 
ing from the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ might 
remove from them that condemnation, and the free gift come 
upon them unto justification of life, eternal life, as proven 
from Romans. 

As to whether infants who die in infancy are saved, there 
will surely be no controversy. All must and will admit it. 
Therefore, there can be no controversy as to whether they 
are justified or not before they can be sanctified and taken 
to heaven, unless it be denied that they are involved in the 
condemnation in any sense whatever. Then the controversy 
is with the plain Word of God and not with us. While we 
contend for infant justification on the ground of federal 
representation, we have the full sanction of the Bible to 
sustain such connection and influence, for the representative 
influence of Adam upon the world is a mournful and incon- 
trovertible fact, known and read of all men. And we thank 
G-od that the representative influence of Christ on behalf of 
those who were involved by the first, in removing all legal 
impediments out of the way, and in affording them a salva- 
tion suited to their condition, is sustained by equal author- 
ity — the Holy Bible. There can be no well-founded objec- 



200 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

tion to the doctrine as we have presented it. For, if it 
should be said that infant purity is the necessary and certain 
result of the doctrine, it will be remembered that we have 
more than once admitted the depravity of infants; and while 
we hold that they come into the world in a salvable state 
under a dispensation of mercy, we have fully shown that it 
is the work of the Spirit to remove depravity and to sanctify 
the soul, and without this there is no purity in either infant or 
or adult. That the idea of infant purity has been associated 
with infant justification, and by many taken as one and the 
same thing, is not denied, but that we hold that sentiment 
is fully denied, as it is that justification and sanctification 
are one and the same thing. To the doctrine as held and 
advocated by us we have never been able to see but one 
difficulty that might present itself; that is, if adults are 
immediately sanctified on being justified, why are not 
infants all sanctified if they are justified? This may appear 
to be a real difficulty in the minds of some, but on further 
examination it will vanish away. For if it were contended 
that they came into existence under condemnation, it must 
be conceded that if God in his providence should see fit 
to take them to himself in heaven, that he would first fit 
them for the place and the happiness thereof, by removing 
both the condemnation and the uncleanness from them. 
Now, as he could in righteousness and justice do this at the 
time of their death, without any thing being required of 
them or done by them, must it not be done on the ground 
of something which had been done for them long before, 
and was as complete then as now? Certainly. All will 
answer that it was done for and in consideration of what 
Christ has done for them, which was as fully sufficient to 
have removed their condemnation before as at the time of 
their death. But it might be said that God might suspend 
their justification until death, the time of sanctifying them, 
though he could have done it before on the very same 
ground. That he could suspend their justification until 
death, will not be denied. But now, if he could suspend 
their justification when the ground of it was complete 
before, might it not be as reasonable to contend that he 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 201 

might justify them before, and suspend their sanetification 
until death or thereabouts? Certainly if the one could be 
suspended righteously, so might the other. Then, as either 
might be suspended, it only remains for us to refer the 
reader to the Word of God to prove the position which we 
advocate. Rom. v. 18: " Therefore as by the offense of one 
judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by 
the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men 
unto justification of life." This proves that all come into 
the world under the full benefits of the atonement, and may 
be sanctified at any time, without any thing more, and taken 
to heaven, if God were so to determine. But all who live to 
the years of accountability act out their depraved nature, 
which they have by federal transgression. This is personal, 
and at once subjects them to personal condemnation, for 
which they feel a consciousness of guilt for the first time 
and a dread of wrath, yet their possible salvation remains 
the same — only repentance and faith are required, as we have 
already said. 

Here it may be remarked that although our salvation 
depends upon Christ, and is entirely of free grace, as in the 
case of infants, yet it may be said that much depends upon 
ourselves; for if we believe, we have the promise that we 
shall be saved; but if we believe not, our guilt and condem- 
nation, which we brought upon ourselves, continues. The 
wrath of God abides and burns, and justly, too. Here the 
agency of the creature is fully tested. The law which con- 
demns is holy and requires perfect obedience. This the 
sinner cannot render. But when he turns to Mount Zion and 
comes to the city of the living God, and to Jesus, the media- 
tor of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, and 
believes in Christ with all his heart, then Christ, to his 
willing, confiding soul, becomes the end of the law for right- 
eousness, and he is justified from all things, and changed 
and sealed an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ the 
Lord. We believe that whenever justification takes place 
on personal faith, that the work of sanetification instantly 
follows without delay, for there is a promise made to him 
that belie veth that he shall be saved. Justification being 
14 



202 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

a work of God, done in the heaven of heavens, for him that 
trusts in his Son for full salvation, it must be ratified and 
recorded there, never to be undone and blotted out, but to 
stand forever. Then the Holy Spirit bears the tidings with 
power to the heart, and gives assurance that he shall never 
come into condemnation but have everlasting life. Federal 
condemnation may be removed from infants by the federal 
acts of Christ, and all legal matters be fully adjusted in their 
case, so that they may be sanctified and saved. Yet if God 
should spare them in life to see the time of accountability, 
they may, as they evidently do, commit sin and become 
personally involved and condemned. This is nothing more 
than a recognition of their agency by the divine law, under 
which they are held personally responsible. When this 
condemnation is removed by personal faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, it is certain as God's word is true never to return. 
They shall not come into condemnation, having passed from 
death unto life. To say that infants from whom federal 
condemnation had been removed by Christ, could not sin 
and fall into condemnation when they arrive at years of 
accountability, would be in substance to deny their responsi- 
bility under the government of God. But when they, in 
the full and free exercise of faith, receive Christ and his 
righteousness, and are justified from all things with the 
special promise of salvation, it is certain they never will 
come into condemnation, for that which God promised he 
will perform, and such shall not come into condemnation, as 
already stated. Infant justification turns upon sovereign 
agency alone, while that of adults involves human agency 
fully and clearly. All that we have said may be summed up 
in a few words. 

1. God is holy and his law is holy, just, and good. 2. Man- 
kind are unholy, condemned, and exposed to wrath. 3. The 
plan of salvation presents an ample remedy, adapted to 
every variety and condition of mankind. 4. This plan 
secures, first, the honor of God and the rights of his throne; 
and, second, the holiness and happiness of all who accept 
of the terms, or of such as are taken from the world in a 
state of non-age or idiocy. 5. As all are condemned, that con- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 208 

demnation must be removed or they never can see the king- 
dom of God. 6. Of all this Jesus Christ is the Alpha and 
Omega, our righteousness and rock, and our everlasting all. 
When, therefore, we are justified it is for his righteousness 
sake, and when we are judged in that day in righteousness 
by the man Christ Jesus, we shall be found in him without 
spot or wrinkle, clothed with the Son of God. 



204 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



LECTURE XII. — ON REGENERATION, OR 
THE NEW BIRTH. 



Regeneration is that work of the Holy Spirit by which 
the heart is changed or purified. This work of the Spirit is 
so essentially necessary that no one can be saved without it, 
as we are to understand from the teaching of Christ to 
Nicodemus, as well as to others. It is a new creation in 
man, yet none of the faculties of the soul are destroyed, nor 
are there any new ones produced or given; it is the same 
identical soul after as before regeneration. Divines under- 
stand regeneration to be a purifying work — a deliverance 
from moral defilement, and a work that is done but once, so 
far as we can learn from revelation. 

It is thought by some that this work of the Holy Spirit is 
not a thorough change, but only such in part, and that there 
is much that is impure and opposed to God left in the 
regenerated person, and in that part which is the immediate 
object of the Divine operation. Hence, as no one can be 
admitted into heaven without holiness, they conclude that 
there must be another change wrought in the same identical 
soul, or as a matter of course it cannot be saved. Calvinists 
and Arminians hold the same sentiment here, with this 
difference only : The former hold that the further change 
of the soul commences where regeneration ends, and 
progresses through life, and is never complete until death. 
This they call sanctification. Arminians hold that this 
second change is instantaneous like regeneration, but that it 
also has such an influence on the whole man — the body as 
well as the soul — as that the latter is sinless. The doctrine is 
the same in both cases, with this difference — the one holds it 
to be progressive through life, and the other instantaneous. 
It appears, however, to be held by both, that all who are in a 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 205 

regenerate state, and continue therein, will be sanctified at 
death, and be saved. 

That the truly regenerate do make very great progress in 
the divine life, is to my mind, clearly taught in the Bible, 
and I have no objection that this progress be called sanctifi- 
cation; but that regeneration leaves the soul only changed in 
part, and partly fit for heaven as a matter of course, and that 
there is another great change to be wrought by the Spirit, in 
the same soul, which is either progressive or instantaneous, is 
most solemnly questioned. 

This is not called in question alone, nor mainly because it 
is rejected by reason, but on the ground of plain revelation. 
Reason and revelation both have their appropriate place in 
this investigation. Revelation is first, and is reason's guide 
to conduct her to safe conclusions. We know with certainty 
that man, the contemplated subject of regeneration, is made 
up of a soul and a body; of mind and matter. These 
constitute the man, and the being for whom the remedial 
system was instituted. I am well assured that in every 
instance where one part is changed and made pure, the other 
will be also at some time, if not at the same instant; it will 
be done. When we speak of the whole man, we mean both 
soul and body, and are so apprehended by those who hear us. 
When we say that the whole man is changed, we are 
understood to say that both soul and body are changed, and 
such change we must consider to be perfect, unless otherwise 
informed. In all compounds, there may be a change in one 
part, without any change of a vital character in the other 
parts. Yet there may be sympathy between the several 
parts; the well part may sympathize with the diseased, and 
the diseased may derive some aid and benefit from the 
healthy part. The Bible informs us that regeneration is a 
new creation; a thorough work; a total change in man, and 
that it is instantaneous; but this change does not appear 
from the Word of God, to be of the whole man, but of some 
part of him. And from what the Bible says of it, we are 
led to the conclusion that the part of man which is com- 
pletely and instantaneously changed in regeneration, is the 
soul, and not the whole man, including the body. The soul 



206 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

is one simple, uncompounded something, not divisible, or 
capable of being divided without destruction. The unit}- of 
the soul is as truly a truism as the unity of God. Conse- 
quently, we can have no just conceptions of a unit being 
changed, or created anew in part — it has no parts but its 
simple, uncompounded self. It is a truism that all the parts 
are equal to the whole, and the whole equal to all its parts, 
and as the soul has but one part, that must be the whole of 
it. Now, as we see, it may be safely argued, that if the soul 
is a unit, it must, if changed at all, be thoroughly changed; 
yet, I will not rely upon that but in part, my firm reliance is 
on revelation. That I may be fully comprehended by all 
who may have leisure to investigate these thoughts, I will 
briefly state my position in reference to regeneration. In 
this place it will be sufficient to say that regeneration is alone 
the work of the Holy Spirit directly, and mediately 
through Christ in the soul, by which she is at once cleansed 
from all sin and made pure, and that all such are sealed heirs 
of God, and made certain of glory. I moreover hold that 
the regenerate make great progress in this life, but deny that 
this progress is another great change in the soul, by which 
she is purged from the residue of foul lusts, which were left 
at the first change. 

In taking this position, I am well aware of some conflict with 
an old and somewhat popular opinion, held by more schools 
than one, differing only in shade on this point. Some have 
the second change to be instantaneous, and hung upon con- 
tingencies, while others have it to be progressive, but cerain. 
And let it be distinctly understood that they all contend that 
this last change is in the soul, whatever it may do for the 
body, and is just as essential to salvation as the first change. 
To sustain my position, my first solemn appeal shall be to 
revelation, and there not to doubtful passages, but to such as 
are positive. I shall, moreover, show that the position and 
the proof to sustain it, are in unison, and perfectly harmonize 
with the doctrine of justification on one hand, and certainly 
of heaven, or the final perseverance of the saints on the 
other. See proof, Eze. xxxvi. 25, 26, 27: "Then will I 
sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean : from 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 207 

all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. 
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put 
within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of 
your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh; and I will 
put my Spirit within you." Here we have a promise of a 
new heart, and a new spirit, and the old stony heart is to be 
taken away. This is to be a thorough change by washing, 
or sprinkling clean water upon the heart, of course, for with 
that this divine operation has to do. But whether this 
change takes place at once, and the new heart is given 
instantly, we shall see. Col. in. I, 2, 3, 4: "If ye then be 
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where 
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections 
on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are 
dead and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ 
who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
him in glory." The resurrection spoken of here is preceded 
by a death, and a whole, perfect, and endless life immediately 
follows, which life is hid with Christ in God, and made just 
as certain as the second coming of Christ. If this is regen- 
eration, it takes place in the death and resurrection under 
consideration, and must be as speedy and as perfect in the 
part operated upon, as the transition from darkness unto 
light, or from death unto life. The thing to be changed, is 
not changed until the power which held it in bondage is 
dead, and if the change is in the soul, then the soul is freed 
from sin and Christ has possession of it, and it is a pure soul, 
full of life. Paul says: "For, he that is dead, is freed from 
sin." And again, "But now, being made free from sin, and 
become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, 
and the end everlasting life." — Rom. vi. 7-22. Dr. Chalmers 
says : " It is thus that an instant moral revolution behooved 
to take place; and as it was by a single act that man passed 
into a state of ruin, so it is by a single act that he passes into a 
state of recovery and reconciliation. In the day that he ate 
of the forbidden fruit he died; but in the day or on the 
moment of his believing in the Son of God, he passes back 
again from death unto life. There is the turning point of 
his salvation, and by which there is effected not only the 



208 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

instant translation of him into a new hope, but also into a 
new heart, and so a new character." — Lectures on Butler's 
Analogy, page 83. He holds that the change takes place in 
a moment of time, and that it is complete and perfect; the 
life into which the soul is translated, is the opposite of the 
death that preceded it. This is the plain teaching of revela- 
tion. Christ said to Peter, " If I wash thee not thou hast no 
part with me." And again, " He that is washed ueedeth not 
save to wash his feet, hut is clean every whit: and ye are 
clean, but not all." — John xiii. 8-10. Judas was the only 
exception in the group addressed by Christ; the others, if 
we are to believe him, were clean every whit, for he had 
washed them from their sins in his own blood which 
cleanseth from all sin. 1 Cor. vi. 11: " And such were 
some of you : but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but 
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit 
of our God." These also were washed and sanctified by the 
Holy Spirit. " Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new 
creature: old things are passed away: behold all things are 
become new." — 2 Cor. v. 17. Here we are taught that all who 
are in Christ are thoroughly changed, and made new creatures 
in him. This is regeneration, or the new birth. " Whosoever 
is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth 
in him; and he cannot sin because he is born of God." — 
1 John in. 9. In whatever part of man the work of 
regeneration is wrought, it must be a perfect change in that 
part — must be total. If it should be said that a pure life 
principle only is implanted in the soul in regeneration, which 
expands into full maturity, I could not object to the idea of 
expansion either in this life or the next. But what are the 
ideas which attach to that phrase generally, and what are the 
teachings of those who use it? Manifestly, that the life 
principle is itself pure, but it is implanted in a soul which at 
most is only changed in part, while there remains much in 
it that is not pure, many hateful lusts, and the expansion of 
that life principle displaces these lusts more and more, and 
so the soul is more and more changed. This is called by 
some progressive sanctitication, by which the Christian dies 
daily unto sin arid becomes more perfect. The idea does not 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 209 

appear to be that the soul is changed, but that the pure life 
principle occupies part of it, while the other part is tenanted 
by lusts. According to the sentiment, it appears that the 
life principle is so totally distinct from the soul, that it can 
possess and dwell in part of the soul, while foul lusts possess 
the other part, and keep up a war in it with the life prin- 
ciple. Hence, we are to understand that when this life 
principle displaces all the lusts, then, and not before, is the 
soul fit for heaven, and this must be progressive, and the soul 
will be a habitation for the life principle. From the first, I 
have objected to the idea ot a partial change of heart. The 
soul is a simple uncompounded unit, and can neither be 
changed in part nor occupied in part; the change must be 
thorough, and the occupancy entire, or not at all. 

When regeneration takes place, the change is full and 
complete throughout, and there is a death of sin, when at 
once the life principle is given, which becomes permanent in 
and throughout the entire soul, and whatever expansion 
there may be of the life principle, the soul must expand with 
it. The life principle is sufficiently large at first to fill the 
soul. Those who hold that there is either a progressive or 
instantaneous work in the soul after regeneration, called 
sanctitication, by which the soul dies daily unto sin, and 
becomes more and more holy, must necessarily come in 
contact with the plain Word of God, and bewilder them- 
selves and others. For the Bible, while it teaches that there is 
a growth in grace, does most unequivocally teach that the 
death takes place in regeneration, and not after it, either 
instantly or progressively. Hence, to speak of another 
death in sanctitication, after regeneration, is not sustained by 
either reason or revelation, in so far as I have been able to 
see. Those who contend that if the soul is radically changed 
in regeneration, that such pure souls have nothing more to 
do in this life, ought to be aware of the fact that if their 
argument is worth anything, it weighs equally against the 
doctrine of perseverance. For if after the heart of the 
Christian is made pure, he may not work for the Master, 
ma} 7 he not cease all effort when once sealed an heir of God ? 
The position is hazardous; for if it might be so on earth, it 



210 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

might be so in heaven. I hold that the purer the man, the 
more he will work and the better he loves to work, and this 
is the fruit of the tree. I can see nothing that is to be 
gained by the doctrine of progressive sanctification, which 
could not be' much better accomplished without it, unless the 
soul's salvation depends upon the works, and it must be 
sanctified by works. If it is supposed that men will work 
more and better when they are told that they are only 
renewed in part, and must strive to make progress in purity, 
than if they were made to believe they are already pure, it is 
maifestly an error. For the impure will neither work more 
nor better, nor will the sanctified work less and with less 
effect; for it is by their fruits that ye shall know them, 
whether they be good or bad. Such as hold the doctrine of 
progressive sanctification, cannot urge upon the regenerate 
with any degree of plausibility that they will be lost if they 
do not make progress, for if they hold the doctrine of 
perseverance, and that such are sealed heirs of God, they 
cannot consistently say that they will either fail to persevere, 
or go to hell if they do not. There is no medium between 
life and death, a complete change and no change at all, for 
the condition of man must be either the one or the other;, he 
is either dead or alive; he is either changed or not changed, 
and moreover, when the Lord undertakes to change the 
heart, he will not half do the work, nor will he protract the 
work through a lifetime, but at once he washes and makes it 
clean every whit. But I have said that regeneration is 
harmoniously connected with justification on the one hand, 
and a certainty of heaven on the other. This will appear 
from the very nature and design of the plan of salvation. 
Justification relates to all legal claims which stand against 
us, of every kind, and the justifying consideration must be 
as complete as the law, and fully meet all its demands. Such 
was the satisfaction which Christ rendered for us. And it is 
a truism that on the ground that we are justified from all 
things, we are not' only completely sanctified, but also sealed 
and glorified, and on the same divinely appointed condition. 
This condition is faith in the Son of God. Therefore, he 
that believeth, shall be justified, and he who is justified shall 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 211 

be sanctified, and he who is sanctified shall be glorified. 
This arrangement, however, was not brought before the 
anxious mind of the Phillippian jailer, when he enquired 
what he must do to be saved. The answer was, believe in 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. There was 
nothing said of justification or regeneration; yet these were 
implied and granted on the same condition, and made equally 
sure as they were equally essential. A title to eternal life 
upon the gospel plan is only given to such as are first made 
children; none are children who are not first changed into 
the image of God, and no adult is changed into the image of 
God until he is justified, nor is he justified until he believes 
in the Son of God. But when he believes, he is justified 
fully from all things, and instantly he is changed and 
brought up to the righteousness of Christ in his heart, from 
glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. The change is as 
complete as the righteousness which procured it meritori- 
ously, and is wrought in the same instant that God justifies. 
Hence, the work of the Holy Ghost in the soul is as perfect 
as that of the Father and the Son, and in perfect harmony 
with the righteousness wrought out for us by the Son, and 
imputed by the Father. When a sinner is justified from all 
things, if he is not made certain of eternal life at that time, 
we have no warrant in the Word of God to say that he ever 
will be. And if when he is justified and sealed an heir of 
God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, he is not radically 
changed and possessed of a new heart, what assurance have 
we in God's Word that he ever will be sanctified? The 
entire argument as to any one's certainty of heaven, settles 
down upon the fact of his being a child of God. As to 
what constitutes a child, we have only to enquire into the 
plain teachings of revelation to learn the truth. There we 
find it clearly demonstrated that we become children of God 
by faith. For ye are all the children of God by faith in 
Christ. Next we find that the children of God not only have 
the mind and spirit of Christ, but they have passed from 
death unto life — they are new creatures in him, and he is in 
them. Old things have passed away : behold all things have 
become new. This all takes place at the time they believe in 



212 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

the Son of God, and at no other; then it is that they receive 
the spirit of adoption, and are children of God and joint 
heirs with Jesus Christ. As there is no medium between 
death and life, so there is none between a child of God and a 
child of the devil; we are all either the one or the other; 
we are either with Christ or against him, and there is no 
middle ground between a thorough change of heart, and no 
change at all. It would scarcely seem possible that any one 
would doubt this position so fully taught in the Word of 
God ; 3 T et it is denied by man}?, and warmly assailed, and the 
position is taken that the soul is only changed in part in 
regeneration, and that it must be further sanctified, and this is 
not barely an expansion of the life principle, or of the soul, 
nor is it good works and fruits; but it is a change of the 
same soul which the Spirit of God regenerated, yet changed 
but in part. This same soul has many foul lusts in it which 
war against God, and against the regenerated part of itself, 
and the purging out of these lusts is called sanctification, 
and this change according to some is a slow process, a 
progressive work continued through life. While others will 
have it to be instantaneous like regeneration, but very 
uncertain as to whether it will ever be consummated. They 
suppose that the lusts left in the soul may gain the ascend- 
ancy and dethrone Jesus Christ from the heart of the child 
of God, and hurl such into perdition. These sentiments I 
have before noticed as the same, except the idea of persever- 
ance. For as to works and their efficacy in sanctification, 
they are in substance the same; both hold that a lifetime of 
faith and good works is the condition of the second change 
or sanctification. Thus we see that there is one exercise of 
faith which is the instrument, or condition of justification 
and regeneration; a change in part, and another exercise of 
it protracted through life, which is the condition of sanctifi- 
cation, or the change of the other part of the soul, and 
sometimes the body is connected with it. Whatever is the 
condition of eternal life, is also the condition of justification, 
and of sanctification; of a thorough, radical, total change of 
heart upon the gospel plan, and all promised on that 
condition must be made equally sure. Now, if faith is this 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 213 

condition, I can see no reason or evidence in the Bible why 
the one should be delayed more than the other, or why 
8anctilication should be progressive any more than 
justification and a title to eternal life; nor can there be any 
just cause for such delay of sanctification in the soul, unless 
it is suspended upon another condition, separate and apart 
from that of justification and eternal life. This, however, is 
not true, for it is the very same faith which justifies and 
secures eternal life, that secures a new heart, and both 
justification and a new heart must precede a sealed title to 
eternal life, as the latter is founded upon the former in all 
creeds, except they be rigid predestination, in which it is 
assumed upon an eternally decreed title. If there were any 
other foundation for sanctification than that of justification 
by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, then it 
must be works, and of course both sanctification and eternal 
life must be uncertain, as they depend upon such chaff. 
Moreover, as they are suspended, at least in part, upon 
something else than justification, and cannot be consummated 
at the time of justification, it may be uncertain of accom- 
plishment forever, as some contend, and the soul not 
sanctified at the time of justification, may never be 
sanctified and sealed to eternal life. In short, we have no 
evidence of certainty for either sanctification or a pure heart, 
and a title to eternal life, but the time of justification, and by 
virtue of it, and in immediate connection with it. 

Being fully convinced that both justification and eternal 
life are made not only sure on condition of faith, but the work 
of justification and the act of sealing to eternal life, are in fact 
consummated forever at the time, we are led to the conclu- 
sion that the intervening work is also done at the same time, 
and that the soul is fully washed. If, therefore, any thing 
more is promised after, and in addition to eternal life, and 
what precedes it, it must be on some other condition, such as 
works, or faith and works, and not on the first act. We 
never can find any difficulty in reconciling the opinion that 
the soul is fully renewed in regeneration with the Word of 
God, for there it is fully taught and it harmonizes with justi- 
fication and our union with Jesus Christ. But we find it to 



214 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

be most difficult to reconcile ourselves to give up an old, long 
cherished opiuion. Hence, the great reluctance in many to 
give up the notion of progressive sanctification, or another 
change of heart in addition to the new birth, and their strenu- 
ous efforts to sustain it by such portions of God's Word as only 
teach the duty of Christians — how they should live and 
labor, and bear fruit and let their light shine in the world. 
Such passages of Scripture they suppose sustain them as to a 
second change, it being long cherished, notwithstanding regen- 
eration is most positively declared to be a passing from 
death unto life, that old things have passed away, and all 
things have become new. Such Bible declarations must 
apply to the soul alone, or to both soul and body immediately 
after the new birth. If we say to both, we at once give up 
progressive sanctification as another purifying work, and 
moreover the sentiment comes in contact with the Word of 
God, for it does teach that there is some part of even those 
who are born of God in which there dwelleth no good thing. 
Now, if it is true that there is some part of a child of God in 
which there is nothing good, surely that can not be both soul 
and body, for he is a new creature — Christ is in him the hope 
of glory. It must, therefore, be manifest that it is the soul 
which is born of the Spirit, and there is good in it, for the 
spirit of Christ dwells there; but in the same person it is said 
there is no good thing. That must be the body — in Bible 
language, the flesh — in it there is nothing good. On the 
hypothesis that the soul is sanctified in regeneration, some 
have supposed that the advocates of the doctrine must neces- 
sarily hold that the body sins separate and apart from the 
mind. Such may be their notions of those who hold the 
doctrine of a thorough change, and they may assume to make 
them so speak. But such is neither true in fact, nor is it a 
necessary sequence of the doctrine, but only their own mode 
of reasoning. The soul may be pure and the body corrupt 
and inclined to evil, yet no one could suppose upon any prin- 
ciples of right that responsibility could properly rest upon the 
body and not upon the soul ; the soul must constitute man 
responsible in the government of God. Yet this admitted, 
does not decide the question as to whether regeneration is a 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 215 

thorough change throughout the whole man, or only in the 
soul, or whether it is a partial change in every part. I have 
taken the position that regeneration is a perfect work in 
man — a work at the time confined to the soul — and I urge 
every clear passage relating to a change contained in the 
Bible in proof, and contend that where the Word of God 
speaks so positively of all things being made new, the only 
alternative left those who object to my position of a thorough 
change in the soul is not to deny this, but to extend the 
change to the body also, and contend for perfection through- 
out the whole man. In doing this it devolves upon them to 
account for the* warfare of which the Word of (rod often 
speaks, between the flesh and the spirit, and to inform us 
whether this warfare between the flesh and the spirit is a war 
of flesh in the regenerated soul united with the body, and 
only using it as an instrument of consummating the fleshly 
purposes of the soul, and this question they are bound to 
meet. If they tell us, as all do who hold to progressive sanc- 
tification and another great change after regeneration, that 
the exciting cause to sin in the children of God is in the 
soul, and suggested and prompted by lusts which the regen- 
erating spirit left there, it not only obscures the doctrine of 
regeneration, but to my mind amounts to a contradiction of 
the new birth and a palpable contradiction of the Word of 
God in relation to it. But if they should tell us that they 
hold no such sentiment as a partial change of heart, and that 
there are man} 7 foul lusts in the souls of the new born, which 
war therein and excite her to sin, the question recurs, Where 
are those lusts in God's children which excite them to sin? 
Are they in the soul, or are they in the body? The Bible 
says they are in the body in which there is no good thing; 
but that that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and is led 
by the Spirit which dwells there. I have never been able to 
reconcile the idea of a first and second regeneration in this 
life, whether the second be progressive or instantaneous — 
called sanctification — with the Word of God, nor have I ever 
seen anything else but palpable contradictions in the teach- 
ing of those who hold the doctrine and advocate it. They 
tell us that such as are born again, and, in Bible language, 



216 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

washed, sanctified, and made every whit whole, are further 
sanctified, either in soul or body, or both, and that they die 
more and more unto sin until they are thoroughly changed. 
Some times we are led from their teachings to suppose that 
the child of God is a new creature saved by grace, and at 
other times we are led to the conclusion that he is but little 
better than he was before, and with a small start heavenward 
he is to be saved by works. But on the basis that regenera- 
tion is a thorough work in the soul, I find no difficulty in 
understanding the doctrine of justification and a sealed title 
to eternal life in harmony with it; and, also, with the true 
doctrine of future progressive sanctification as taught in the 
Word of God — which is the act of sealing or setting it apart 
for God and heaven, to overcome the world, the flesh, and the 
devil, to expand and bear much good fruit, and to abound in 
every good word and work. But this position at once sets 
aside the notion of a second regeneration, whether instanta- 
neous .or progressive, as an error, and at the same time secures 
all that is contemplated by an active, persevering, godly life 
in the children of God who are heirs of heaven, being children. 
The only motive which can possibly be found in the doctrine 
of this supposed second change, is on the side of ap«»sracy 
and in the hands of its advocates, and they urge it as a motive 
to good works, alleging that all who do not attain to this 
second change, though regenerated, will be lost. But the 
advocates for the doctrine of perseverance and a certain title to 
eternal life to all God's children, hold the same sentiment, 
though the change is progressive, while they throw the 
motive away. I will, however, place no undue stress upon such 
incongruities, but mainly on the Bible facts of the case. I 
find it taught from heaven, and written with the pen of 
inspiration that the newborn person is a new creature in Christ, 
and that such do not and can not sin because they are born 
of God and their seed abides in them, and yet I find it taught 
in the same volume with unerring certainty that in them — 
yes, even in Paul — dwelt no good thing. Now, if Paul and 
other inspired men, had not said, in me, that is in my flesh, 
dwelleth no good thing, we should be constrained to think 
that he was as vile and polluted throughout after as before 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 21 

regeneration. But he tells us that he delighted in the law of 
Q-od after the inner man, and that with the mind — the soul — 
he served God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Then he 
telis us that "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the 
spirit against the flesh ;" and that these "are contrary the one 
to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." 
Here the warfare begins between the flesh and the mind, or 
the flesh and the spirit. These are the opposite contending 
parties in the Christian. I understand that he who is born 
of God has a totally changed spirit, or soul, and the spirit of 
Christ is in him, and that the body and flesh are the same 
thing in this connection, and that it is the flesh which is at 
variance with the soul in which the spirit of Christ dwells; 
and that this is the body which is to be brought into subjec- 
tion, and not a body of flesh or a body of sin in the new born 
soul. The idea of the body of sin and flesh with which the 
children of God war being in their souls, as some contend, 
will not do me for the Bible doctrine of a new heart; it sa- 
vours much of that which saps the very foundation of 
regeneration and the Christian religion, and its legitimate 
tendency is clearly in that direction. Let us be sober and 
consistent, and not mislead ourselves and others by vain phi- 
losophy in our attempts to sustain an old dogma and long- 
cherished error, but come at once to the law and testimony. 
I have never yet seen but two arguments urged against a 
thorough work in regeneration: One is the life of Christian 
progress after the new birth, which has been, in my opinion, 
totally mistaken for a progressive purification of the heart 
itself; and the other is founded upon the supposition, that if 
the soul of the Christian is pure it can not commit sin, and 
consequently all such must live a sinless life: for as much as 
the flesh — the body — is as incompetent to sin as a tombstone 
or an unpolished block of marble. But I admit fully that the 
best of men on earth commit improprieties, say sins, but not 
the sin unto death ; and at the same time I hold that such as 
are born of God are thoroughly washed and sanctified in their 
souls, and cannot and do not with free volition commit sin, 
knowingly and intentionally against God: because their seed 
is in them, and the love of God is in them, rooted and 
15 



218 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

grounded there. "What, then; are they sinless? No; the 
Word of God teaches otherwise. Let us, therefore, come into 
the sanctuary of inspiration and we shall find it all plainly 
revealed. The new born soul is still united with the same 
impure body, and while it is true that the body, separate and 
apart from the mind and her guardianship, could no more 
commit moral evil than if it were cold and dead in the grave ; 
yet it is both the voice of Scripture and reason, that the seat 
of sin and the exciting cause of sin in the child of God is 
in his body, and not in his soul. Where, I ask, were the lusts 
which excited David to adultery and murder, and Peter to 
deny his Lord? Surely not in the soul, but in the flesh. 
The sins of those men were not that they did not love God 
and felt in their hearts to rebel against him, but it was a fail- 
ure to subdue the lusts of the flesh and to keep their bodies 
under, as Paul expresses it; and their minds consented to 
yield to the cravings of the flesh without any wilfull and 
malicious intent to sin against God. Therefore, we see how 
it is that the flesh lusts against the spirit and wars against it, 
and needs to be kept under through life. Some have sup- 
posed that the exciting cause to sin is in the heart, even in the 
new heart; for as much as Christ said, he that looketh upon 
a woman with lust, or Justeth after her, hath committed 
adultery with her already in his heart. As to the application 
of this text to the unrenewed heart I have nothing to do in 
this place; my business is with the new heart. We can 
readily perceive how this might be true in the case of David 
while his heart was renewed. His flesh looked and lusted 
after the woman, and when his mind consented to the deed, 
prompted by the flesh, he was guilty, provided nothing but 
an opportunity would have prevented it. That the exciting 
cause of the sins committed by regenerated Christians is in 
their souls, and that the lusts of their hearts excite their 
bodies to evil deeds and use them as instruments in carrying 
out such deeds, I consider very hazardous to truth. For 
while it may demonstrate more fully to some minds the 
necessity of another change, it is quite certain to my mind that 
it affords no evidence whatever of any change as having 
already taken place, either in the soul or body ; for none will 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 219 

be claimed for the body when the soul is so currupt as to 
possess the embodiment of such dreadful lusts. And when 
the soul wars against the body with the weapons of darkness 
to subjugate it to the drudgery of Satan, it can only be sup- 
posed to wage war with itself; and being divided against 
itself it must fall, and ruin be the result. I am quite certain 
that the Spirit never bears witness with our spirit that we are 
the children of God, until we are such, not by a change be- 
gun, but consummated; and we never give evidence of a 
change to the world by our light and fruit until we are radi- 
cally changed. The tree will not, it cannot, bear good fruit 
until it is made good. This is the testimony borne upon the 
bright pages of inspiration. All those who give evidence that 
they need a second change, give Bible evidence that they have 
never had the first, bnt are strangers to regenerating grace in 
the heart, having neither part nor lot in the matter. But 
such as give testimony of a new heart by their fruits, have the 
evidence within that they are Christ's, whilst they manifest it 
to others, and show by their fruits that they are in the right 
way to all the Christian perfection contemplated in the gos- 
pel. There is much obscurity hung about the doctrine of 
two changes, calculated to hide the great doctrines of the 
cross. 1. It makes the evidence of a thing properly the con- 
dition of it. Good works and fruits are the scriptural 
evidence of a new heart. But this scheme of two changes of 
heart makes good works and fruits the condition upon which 
the second is suspended. 2. It divides a work of God into 
parts and parcels, which the Word of God has declared to be 
a unit in a unit, or one heart. 3. It contradicts the Word of 
God which says the child of God is a new creature in Christ, 
while it teaches that he is only such in part, there yet remains 
much that is impure in his soul — much of the old man. 4. 
It covers up the doctrine of justification and faith, the condi- 
tion of eternal life in dark clouds, by giving neither Scripture 
nor reason why the heart, which believes in the Son of God 
and is justified from all things and sealed an heir of God, 
should not be radically changed and made a child in nature 
as he is in law and by title. It admits that he is a child in 
both law and title whenever he is justified, but denies that he 



220 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

is so in heart; while God's Word and Spirit both testify with 
his spirit that he is such in heart also. 5. While it charges 
upon the doctrine of a thorough work in regeneration as 
holding that the body is impure in this life, and the idea of 
heathen philosophy as to the evil of matter and emancipation 
from it only by death, it holds to evil in the soul — the new 
born soul — through life, and that it is all that time being 
changed, but is never changed until death does it or hastens 
it, if then. Those who advocate the doctrine suppose they 
have all the Bible on their side, but the reason why I cannot 
embrace the doctrine is, that I find all the Bible against it. 
The labor of a child of God is progressive, and his fruits in- 
crease, and the soul expands; but the work of renewing grace 
in the soul is an instantaneous change, it is a resurrection, 
and when God shall regenerate this body in the morning of 
the resurrection it will be done in a moment of time, in the 
twinkling of an eye, like the resurrection of the soul into 
spiritual life; and there is as little progress in the first resur- 
rection as in the second, so far as can be seen from the Word 
of God. He that believes in Christ is at the time justified, 
sanctified, and set apart for the Lord's service in this life, and 
for glory hereafter, and the Spirit of the Lord bears witness 
to the reality of the change, the certainty of the title, and 
animates and strengthens the soul for the toil of the journey. 
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but 
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regen- 
eration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us 
abundantly through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

It will be observed throughout the Bible that whenever and 
wherever the new heart is spoken of, it is spoken of as a per- 
fect work of the Master's hand, bearing his own divine impress 
and all the influence and. agencies contemplated as being 
essentially necessary in the remedial system to renovate the 
heart, are invariably alluded to as having been brought to 
bear upon the heart before the change is represented as hav- 
ing taken place. Observe, then, that the Word of God says 
of him who is declared to be a child, that he has been born 
of the Spirit, that he has passed from death unto life, that he 
has been justified, washed, and sanctified, and then adopted 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 221 

and sealed because this change has already taken place. But 
the Word of God no where speaks of these things as taking 
place after regeneration, either in whole or in part; and we 
have as little evidence of another change in the soul after the 
work of regeneration, called sanctification, which is either 
instantaneous or progressive, as we have of another justifica- 
tion and adoption after God has once done this and declared it 
done. And, moreover, it is no more a Bible doctrine that 
there is a progressive, purifying, regenerating work promised 
or done in the soul after the new birth and adoption, than it 
is a Bible doctrine that there is another justification and seal- 
ing to eternal life which are progressive. All these are spoken 
of as having taken place whenever they are recognized as 
children and the Spirit bears his witness in them. Special 
attention is invited to the fact that the work of sanctification, 
which is supposed to commence when regeneration ends, 
leaving the heart at most only changed in part, and to pro- 
gress until the change is made complete, will be found 
throughout the Word of God to be nothing more nor less than 
the abiding influence of the Spirit and grace of God in the 
hearts of his children to comfort, quicken, lead, strengthen, 
and make them fruitful and abundant in every good word and 
work, and to keep them by the power of God through faith 
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. This 
power in the heart — the whole heart — is the well of living 
water in it, which rises, yes, springs up into everlasting life, 
which the child of God hath now, but is to enjoy fully 
hereafter. 

Before closing this lecture, permit me to make some analog- 
ical deductions. Analogy is the likeness or resemblance of 
things in some respects. It has been supposed and assumed 
that there is a striking analogy between the kingdom of 
nature and grace, and that the progress and maturity of 
vegetation is analogous of the progressive work of the Spirit 
in purifying the soul, called progressive sanctification. Then 
let us take one single thing out of the field of nature which 
our Lord has selected, together with his comment upon it — 
the tree. We take it in its wild state, either fruitless or bear- 
ing evil fruit like the unrenewed man. Whenever the Lord 



222 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

speaks of it as analogous of the sinner, the fruit and quality 
of the tree are alike bad; but when analogous of the Chris- 
tian, are alike good. " Make the tree good and his fruit will 
be good." There appears to be no progress either in making 
the tree or its fruit good ; it appears to be in a positive state, 
either good or bad, and when it passes from bad to good it is 
never pronounced good by him who works the change until 
it is so and sealed as such. ISTo sooner, however, is it made 
good than the fruit is good also. After this change, which 
appears to be instantaneous, the analogy is this: The tree 
grows larger, and by the continual supply of sap and warmth, 
it bears more fruit; bnt the tree all the time remains the 
same in nature and identity, and the fruit as a matter of course 
the same. Here is a growth in the tree and an increase in the 
quantity of the fruit, but not in the quality. Sinners, accord- 
ing to this analogy, are such until they are radically changed, 
and until that time they are not recognized as trees of the 
Lord's planting by the rivers of water which bring forth fruit 
in season. But from the time of regeneration to the day of 
their removal, neither the Bible nor analogy warrants any 
other change of soul than expansion and an increase in fruits. 
It is the fruit of the Spirit all the time, and nothing better 
nor worse. 

Let us now see the true analogy of the great moral change 
in man. This we shall find not to be the growth of trees or 
plants or any change in them, but creation itself by the crea- 
tive hand. Whatever may have been the process in creation 
and its progress, it was first made, and fully made, before the 
Creator pronounced upon it. It was not the creation of a 
thing in progress, but the thing completed, upon which he 
pronounced the word good. And whatever may have been 
the progress in the creation of the great whole, we see that 
each part was made at a single word, and especially man. 
He was created in a moment of time, and in the likeness and 
image of God. Regeneration is a new creation by the same 
hand, and the analogical induction is fairly this, that the new 
creation is as instantaneous as the first and as perfect; for the 
image of God is again impressed and the work pronounced 
good by the author of it. This work is in the soul, and there 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 223 

the divine image is impressed. It may be stated with pro- 
priety that the resurrection is also analogous of regeneration, 
though it does not belong to nature but belongs to the won- 
derful operations of Omnipotence. We understand the 
resurrection to be instantaneous; the body rises in a moment 
of time, changed and living. If there is any analogy between 
the resurrection of the body and regeneration, as we are bound 
to admit from the Word of God, it consists mainly in the 
work being instantly completed by one operation of divine 
grace. This is manifestly the teaching of divine revelation; 
for it is written, " Ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ 
in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall 
ye also appear with him in glory." "If ye then be risen with 
Christ, seek those thing9 which are above, where Christ sitteth 
on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things 
above, not on things on the earth." — Col. in. 1-5. In con- 
templating the great work of the Spirit, we are liable to 
confusiou and misapprehension as to what regeneration con- 
sists in, and to have our opinions moulded more in conformity 
to physics and visible objects than tne Word of God and 
Christian experience. The consequence of which is rather to 
materialize than to spiritualize our theory of religion in rela- 
tion to the great moral change. This was strikingly evinced 
by Nieodemus in his interview with our Lord, who, on hearing 
of the necessity of the new birth, at once discovered his mate- 
rialized notions of religion and doubted its reality and 
possibility according to the law of physics. Here our Lord 
explained: " That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit." It may be well to 
observe, not only that this birth is the Spirit's work, but also 
that it is a work in the spirit of man, and that it is the spirit 
of man which is born of the Spirit of God, which lives and 
abides in the new born spirit. This view of the doctrine will 
lead our minds to a more correct understanding of the Word 
of God, which teaches that all who are born of the Spirit have 
the Spirit in them — "that Christ is their life," — " and if any 
man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his." In 
thinkiug of the new birth, not unfrequently it may be, the 
inquiry comes up in the mind after the mould of the materi- 



224 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

ali8m of Nicodemus, How can these things be, or what Is it 
that is changed or born again, and upon what is the image 
of God impressed? The soul is a unit as before stated, and 
the faculties and affections are exercises and feelings of the 
soul, and not different members and parts of it, like the 
different members and parts of the material body. Hence, 
when the soul is born again in one part it is born in every 
part, so to speak, for one part is the whole of it; and when 
the Spirit of God is in one part he lives in every part, and 
when the image of God is restored to the soul it is not like an 
impression made upon wax, or the stroke of a painter's brush 
upon canvass: but it is the work of the Spirit upon (in) and 
throughout the whole soul. Some theologians will have it 
that the affections only are changed in the new birth. Here 
let me remark that when the affections are changed, the soul 
must be changed in the very same sense, for if the change is 
not effected in the source whence the affections flow, there 
would be no permanency in the change, but it would need to 
be perpetually progressive. If the affections of the soul 
properly were annihilated, the soul would be blotted out of 
existence, and if memory or will were blotted out this would 
be the annihilation of the whole soul, unless God were to 
uphold it contrary to the constitution which he at first gave 
it. While, therefore, the soul remains the same in its essen- 
tial existence after as before the new birth, yet the purpose 
and affections are new; and while peace and joy in the Holy 
Ghost are the evidence within of the change, light, fruits, and 
good works are the evidence exhibited to the Church and the 
world. The soul born of the Spirit loves God with all her 
affections, mind, and might; and this love of God is rooted 
and grounded throughout the whole soul where the image of 
God and the Spirit of Christ are. The change, therefore, is 
just what the Bible represents it to be, not upon the surface 
of the soul, hut throughout and of course in all her affections. 
Hence, the force and beauty of Paul's address to such, when 
he says, " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things 
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of 
God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on 
the earth." Here the warfare begins for life between the 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 225 

regenerated soul, strengthened by the Spirit of Christ, on the 
one hand ; and the world, the flesh, and the devil on the other. 
Satan must be repulsed, the world overcome, and the flesh 
religiously ruled, lest we enter into temptation at an unguarded 
moment. The life of the child of God on earth should corres- 
pond with the life of Christ in his soul, and both these with 
his justification and title to eternal life. 

This is a subject of all others the richest in itself, being an 
embodiment of the Christian religion, both in its experimental 
reality and its practical influence and power. It presents a 
new born soul and a new born life; the first as the spring, and 
the latter as the stream. The presentation which I have given 
you of this subject has not been prompted by any preference 
of my own, but alone by the findings of the Word of God, in 
which it appears to be unequivocally impressed upon the page 
of inspiration that the new birth is at once a radical change 
of heart, and that which follows after it, by whatever name it 
may be called, is not another purification of regenerated part, 
but the fruits of it by the spirit of Jesus Christ dwelling in 
it. This view of the subject, so far from giving any counte- 
nance to antenomianism, affords the best evidence to the new 
born soul of her acceptance with God and assurance of 
heaven, while it exhibits the scriptural and experimental 
differences between the fruits of a living soul and the dead 
formalities of a carnal heart, expecting to attain to sanctiti- 
cation by a round of sapless ceremonies without the witness 
of the spirit of vitality within. Dr. Chalmers admits that far 
the larger portion of the communicants of the Church of 
Scotland are destitute of vitality within, and yield not the 
fruits of a new born heart. Good fruit cannot be borne by a 
bad tree, were it even possible they could sanctify it ; there 
must be a total failure on this plan to make the tree good. 
But if we would have good fruit we must first consider that 
the tree must be made good. He who has given us this lesson 
will no more expect the fruits of the Spirit from a carnal heart, 
than the motions of life from an inhabitant of the grave ; but 
the more he requires and expects in the quality and amount 
of fruits, the more will he do at once in giving a qualification 
for it. And nothing can be more reasonable than a full 



226 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

qualification at once, rather than a lingering process, when the 
condition has been complied with; and good fruits are more 
pleasing to him through life than only at death. I am fully 
convinced that no argument can be urged with success against 
the position which I have taken. If it should be attempted 
from Scripture, it speaks most explicitly of a radical change 
in regeneration ; and if from reason, here we have the high 
vantage ground sustained by Scripture and reason both. For 
if it should be urged against the position, that if the soul is 
sanctified in regeneration, it henceforth has nothing more to 
do, and would have no motive nor inclination to do anything. 
So far as this argument has any force it stands out against 
the opposite opinion, and must prove that whenever the change 
is completed in after life there would cease to be any motive 
or inclination to serve God, not only here, but hereafter. The 
only motive known to me why a child of God serves him 
either here or hereafter, is to glorify and enjoy him forever. 
It cannot be to purchase eternal life, for that he has whenever 
he believes in the Son of God; but he does it because it is his 
new born nature, his element of life, his delight, his glory and 
joy, the crown of his life. You should urge Christians to 
show their faith by their works, and show them that living 
works alone are the fruits of a living faith upon the Son of 
God. But I would not have you urge upon the Christian 
that if he does not work he will never be made a new creature 
in Christ Jesus, or that he will sink to perdition; but if he 
gives not the scriptural evidence of a new heart by the fruits 
of the spirit, come up to the truth at once and inform him as 
Peter did Simon, the Sorcerer, that he has neither part nor 
lot in the matter; that his heart is not right in the sight of 
God. Great care should be taken to show the people that the 
Christian religion consists mainly in a new heart and a new 
life from first to last, and never separate them, as you know 
that God has joined them together. Never suffer yourselves 
so far to depart from the high standard of regeneration as to 
allow that any one can have a new heart in part and a new 
spirit in part; but urge upon them the necessity of a new 
heart at once, and a new life of humble, holy obedience, and 
heavenly-mindedness, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 227 

For you will bear in mind that the great danger and hazard 
of souls does not consist in making the work of the Spirit in 
regeneration too great and too much, so as to paralyze Chris- 
tian efforts; but the danger consists in making it too small, 
in order to prepare the way for the dogma of a future purifi- 
cation by works, and consequently blotting out the distinction* 
between the children of the Lord and the children of the 
world. Let the line of demarkation be what the Lord has 
made it — as the line of demarkation between light and dark- 
ness — wide and clear. 



228 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



LECTURE XIII —ADOPTION. 



Adoption is an act of kindness whereby one person takes 
another into his family, owns him for his son, and appoints 
him his heir. Spiritual adoption is an act of God's free 
grace whereby we are taken into the spiritual family, consti- 
tuted heirs, and entitled to all the privileges of the house- 
hold as sons. The word belongs to common law, and the 
practice of adoption prevailed in early times, and especially 
among the Homans in the days of the apostles, when it was 
the custom for persons having estates and no children, and 
wishing to settle their property upon some one, to adopt 
such person or persons as they chose and make them their 
heirs. This was done with the will and consent of the 
parties concerned, in the form of a contract, in which con- 
siderations were held up and proposed by the adopter for the 
acceptance of the other party. In this covenant-engage- 
ment the first party stipulated to be a father, friend, and 
protector, and to give to the other party his estate on condi- 
tion he would consent to become his son, take his name, 
come under the laws and regulations of his household, and 
engage to perform the duty of a son. In all this there was 
nothing arbitrary, nor could there be among the Romans 
while the republican form of government continued. The 
action of both parties was free, but binding upon each from 
and after the ratification of the contract, for the faithful 
performance of all the stipulations. In the interpretations 
of the Scriptures and a correct understanding of doctrine, 
we may be aided much by customs some times alluded to by 
the voice of inspiration, but should be careful not to place 
too much reliance upon them, but be sure to let revelation 
itself take the lead, as human laws and customs are always 
defective in some respects, and never can be in all things a 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 229 

safe rule of the interpretation of divine truth. The system 
of truth and the plan of salvation is evidently the develop- 
ment of on infinitely wise mind, and may well be called the 
great mystery of godliness ; yet it is short, comprehensive, 
and plain in all its great essentials, and presents more in a 
few words than all the wisdom of this world. The purest 
and most comprehensive law in the universe is comprehended 
in love of God and love to man, and all the gospel in one 
short sentence, " God so loved the world that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish; but have everlasting life." The law is the 
standard of perfection ; the gospel provides and presents the 
plan and power of purification and the life everlasting. The 
plan of salvation, when given in detail by the Holy Spirit, is 
unfolded by words expressive of the modes of divine opera- 
tion in the great work of saving sinners, and all tend to the 
same point, belong to the same work, and constitute a unit 
denominated grace. By this we are said to be saved, yet we 
are saved by justification, sanctification, and adoption; but 
these are so united that we cannot separate them in the same 
person. Where one is, the other is connected with it, and is 
there also in the same person ; and where all are found in 
the person, there is salvation, and glorification will follow. 
These are the embodiment of saving grace, and whatever is 
the condition of one is the condition on which the Lord gives 
them all, and when one is made sure there is equal certainty 
of all. All who are now the children of God have been 
adopted, and if adopted, regenerated, and if regenerated, 
justified for the righteousness sake of Christ. Whatever, 
therefore, is the gospel condition of justification, is of sancti- 
fication, adoption, and glorification; for whom the Lord 
sanctifies, them he also glorifies. Justification, sanctification, 
and adoption being connected in the plan of salvation, and 
taking place on the same condition, when one takes place 
and is completed they all are, and no reason can be assigned 
or scripture adduced to prove to the contrary. The inherit- 
ance which our Heavenly Father stipulates to give to his 
adopted children is everlasting life — glorification. Wherever 
he adopts any one he seals the title and makes the inherit- 



230 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

ance sure. The whole embodiment of saving grace is 
tendered and given to all responsible agents on condition of 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the gracious design of the 
giver is made sure to the receiver at the time of his accept- 
ance by justification, sanctification, and adoption. The 
difference in the signification of these terms is that by justifi- 
cation all legal matters are settled between the justified per- 
sons and the government of God, sanctification removes 
impurity from the heart and gives a qualification for heaven, 
and adoption is the fatherly act of God in taking the sancti- 
fied into his spiritual family and sealing them heirs of the 
heavenly inheritance. There appears from the Scriptures of 
divine truth to be no evidence that the act of adoption ever 
takes place before justification and sanctification, nor with- 
out them, but in connection with them and on the same 
gospel-condition ; nor does it appear that adoption imparts 
any qualification for heaven other than a certain title to the 
heavenly inheritance and the abiding of the Spirit in the 
heart. Adoption, in the plan of salvation and system of 
truth, stand precisely at the point and place where personal 
election unto everlasting life takes place, and is that same 
identical act of God, as may be seen by due attention to the 
Scriptures of truth. In every instance where the word 
occurs in the Bible, its reference is to the children of God — 
to justified, regenerated persons; and in the case of adults, 
it stands connected with saving faith, preceding it. 

To make this all plain, that personal election and adop- 
tion are the same, and that it is granted and given only to 
regenerated persons, and on condition of faith, which is the 
elective act of the creature, by which he makes his calling 
and election sure, it will be necessary to refer to revelation. 
First, I will prove that such as are adopted and personally 
elected unto life are regenerated at the time the act of 
adoption takes place ; secondly, that it takes place on con- 
dition of faith in the Son of God ; and, thirdly, that all 
whom the Lord adopts will be saved. 

First, then, that the elect are regenerated persons at the 
time they are elected unto life. The plan of salvation con- 
templated this in its original organization and frame-work ; 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 231 

hence all the world was chosen in Christ to a possible salva- 
tion, " that he by the grace of God should taste death for 
every man, that they might be holy, and without blame 
before him in love," and might be elected unto life. Eph. 
i. 4, 5 : " According as he nath chosen us in him before the 
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without 
blame before him in love : having predestinated us unto the 
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according 
to the good pleasure of his will." That it may be made 
manifest that all the world was included in this choice of 
God that they might be adopted, see Gal. iv. 4, 5 : " But 
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his 
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem 
them that were under the law; that we might receive the 
adoption of sons." Still further to prove that this benefit 
was designed for the entire race, see Heb. n. 9 : " But we 
see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for 
the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that 
he by the grace of God should taste death for every man ; " 
and 1 John n. 2 : " And he is the propitiation for our sins : 
and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole 
world." This shows that all at the time of their gracious 
visitations might be adopted sons of God, and that whenever 
any one is sanctified he is adopted. Next, it will be seen 
that such as are adopted are spoken of in the Word of God 
as being justified and born of the Spirit. Rom. viii. 9, 
14-17 : " Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he 
is none of his. . . . For as many as are led by the Spirit 
of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received 
the spirit of bondage again to fear ; but ye have received 
the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The 
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the 
children of God : and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, 
and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with 
him, that we may be also glorified together." See also verses 
33, 34: "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's 
elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that con- 
demueth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen 
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 



232 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

maketh intercession for us;" Gal. iv. 6: " And because ye 
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spitit of his Son into your 
hearts, crying, Abba, Father ; " and 1 John in. 2 : " Beloved, 
now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be : but we know' that, when he shall appear, 
we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is." From 
the above, it is unquestionably true that the adopted children 
of God are his elect. They are justified, have the spirit of 
Christ in their hearts, are led by the Spirit, are the children 
and sons of God, and not only heirs of God, but joint heirs 
with Christ; and when he shall appear they shall appear 
with him and be like him, and see and dwell with him as 
joint heirs. 

Secondly, I am to prove that adoption takes place on con- 
dition of faith in the Son of God. John i. 11, 12: "He 
came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as 
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the 
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." 
Christ came unto his own according to the flesh, but they 
were not his according to the Spirit, nor did any of them 
ever become the sons of God until they believed in his Son; 
then by the power of the Spirit they were born again and 
constituted sons of God. We are emphatically told that 
this is the purpose and plan of Heaven, and that he has no 
children in all this world but believers, and that they become 
children by faith. Gal. in. 26 : " For ye are the children of 
God by faith in Christ Jesus." Paul says, " In whom also 
after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit 
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance." — Eph. 
i. 13, 14. If, then, the Lord has no children until he adopts 
them, and does not adopt any until they believe and are 
justified and sanctified, then the idea of unconditional elec- 
tion, and a seed or people given to Christ unconditionally, 
is false. 

In the third place, I am to show that the Lord will save 
all his adopted children. Whether or not true believers 
and children of God may not fall away and be finally lost, 
has been long and warmly controverted, and doubtless will 
continue an unsettled point, yet as the truth stands on one 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 233 

side or the other, it might be found if it were sought in the 
right way. No one will contend, I suppose, and pledge 
himself to give only reliable authority from the Word of God 
that an adopted son of our Heavenly Father ever has been 
or ever will be lost. The Bible every where speaks with as 
much certainty of the salvation of all such as it does of 
eternal life or heaven itself. There is a character mentioned 
in the Word of God called his elect, which never will be 
lost, and no one will attempt to maintain the opposite opin- 
ion on divine authority, for it is said of them that they can- 
not be deceived — it is impossible. Both Peter and Paul 
inform us who the elect are and how elected. 1 Peter i. 2 : 
" Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, 
through sanctiiication of the Spirit unto obedience and 
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ : grace unto you 
and peace be multiplied." "We see that they are elected and 
saved by the sanctifying grace of God according to his wise 
and wonderful plan. And Paul says of the same characters 
that they are justified persons. "Who shall lay any thing 
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died." — 
Pom. viii. 33, 34. That the elect are justified persons, can- 
not be disputed, and it is equally plain that they are justified 
by faith in Christ who died and rose again, and it is infallibly 
certain that God is the justifier, and that he will never 
condemn those whom he justifies, and no other being in the 
universe can; and if they are once justified and never con- 
demned, they will never be lost, but must be saved. Now, 
what is the difference between the elect of God and his 
adopted children ? Manifestly there is none. They are 
identically the same, and the same act that adopts, elects to 
everlasting life, and God is pledged for the inheritance of 
his children. That this is the conclusion to. which the 
Spirit of inspiration led the Apostle Paul may be further 
seen. " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? 
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or 
nakedness, or peril, or sword ? Nay, in all these things we 
are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For 
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
16 



234 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord." — Rom. viii. 35, 37-39. Here is a 
new relationship which never existed before, and is 
expressed by the words Father and his adopted children, 
which relationship has been formed in time and in 
eternity, and when once formed is to continue forever, and 
will never be broken off. No, all the creatures, and things, 
and powers in the universe cannot sever it, and it is both 
unreasonable and untrue that God and his children will do 
it. It is true that God sustains a relationship to all this 
world as a father in one sense, and to one as much as another, 
which is illustrated by the parable of the prodigal son, as 
well as in the first chapter of the gospel by John, where it is 
said of the Son of God, " that he came unto his own and his 
own received him not ; " but there is quite a different sense in 
, which he is a Father, which relationship is expressed in new 
and different language, and which expresses something done 
in time which was not done before, and a new union formed 
on the basis of the new covenant, never to be dissolved. 
This new word is adoption. God adopts those who believe 
in his Son, and makes them sons in a sense altogether new, 
and gives them a new spirit, the spirit of adoption, which is 
the Spirit of Christ, and they are not only sons of God, but 
heirs and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we 
have just the same reason and Scripture authority to believe 
that the union between God and his Son will be broken off, 
that we have for believing that this new relationship, based 
on the new and everlasting covenant between God, our 
Heavenly Father, and his adopted children, will be broken 
off and they fail of the pledged inheritance. Christ is a 
certain heir, and these who are given him by the Father in 
the act of adoption, are equally certain of their inheritance 
according to the Word of God, for they are said to be joint 
heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. These adopted children 
of God are the elect, which cannot be deceived and ruined 
by the devil *>r any other creature or power, and separated 
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus; but being 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 235 

given to the Son will never be lost, but kept by him and the 
Father, and finally brought to behold his glory and dwell 
with him where he is forever. This appears to be the Word 
of God in relation to his adopted children, who become the 
seed of Christ by the adopting act of God, on condition of 
faith, the test-act of the creature, and the Word is true and 
the interpretation thereof sure. Christ's seed are spiritual 
people and have his Spirit in their hearts crying, Abba, 
Father, and he has no seed but such, and none of all this 
world are his seed before they are possessed of his Spirit, 
being born of God. This is the abiding seed in them and 
their pledge and earnest of heaven. " Whosoever is born 
of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him 
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." There is 
nothing like the glorious plan of salvation in all this world, 
and surely nothing to be compared to the union and love 
which exists between God and his adopted children. No 
chords, no love, no peace, no hope, no covenants, no friend- 
ship, no promises, no treasure, and no life so pure and cer- 
tain as all these are. Earthly treasures and all earthly 
things fail ; and earthly fathers are always falible and often 
poor and unkind, and in the use of the rod they frequently 
only gratify some evil passion, and in the use of property 
gratify some hateful lust, as the Word of God says. But 
our Heavenly Father manages his pure and good estate, and 
wields the rod in correcting and enriching his children in a 
different way. The treasure promised is both good and 
sure, and his chastenings are not for his pleasure, but for 
the good of the sons whom he receiveth or adopts. He 
chastens in perfect love and kindness, and while it is true 
that he chastens all his sons, he never will, as his Word 
declares, cast off or disinherit one. He will never forsake 
them. It may be that God brought this word (adopt) into 
use to teach us some precious truths in the plan of salvation, 
which could not well be taught by any other, which it may 
be well to look to. At least it shows us with much clearness 
the certainty of the final perseverance of the saints and their 
everlasting inheritance, and at the same time it shows with 
equal clearness and force the absurdity of unconditional 



236 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

election on the one extreme, and that of apostasy and a 
liability of the Lord's adopted children being lost and 
damned on the other. It has already been proven that this 
middle ground is true, and that the extremes are absurd, 
equally so the one as the other. Unconditional election is as 
absurd, and agrees as little with the government of God, his 
love to the world manifested in the gift of his Son, and the 
agency of man, as the doctrine of apostasy does with the prom- 
ise of God to those who believe in his Son, and are justified, 
washed, and adopted, that they shall be saved, yea, kept by 
the power of his grace through faith unto salvation, ready 
to be revealed in the last time. The one makes God partial, 
and the salvation of some certain, irrespective of free agency, 
and from all eternity, and holds them to be Christ's before 
they are, and makes adoption a mere thing of circumstance 
as to certainty and the real title of heaven ; while the other 
extreme, with as little truth and reliance upon God's decla- 
rations of everlasting life given to all who believe in his Son, 
and their certainty of heaven, doubts and even denies all 
certainty in this life, even to the very elect, the adopted 
sons of God, and holds that they may be separated from the 
love of God which is in Christ Jesus, and be cast off and 
finally cast into the lake of fire. The truth, however, is 
here. Some which were once not the people of God are 
now the people of God, and his children by faith, justifica- 
tion, sanctification, and adoption, and God, their kind 
Father, will never cast them off and condemn them to per- 
dition, but keep them in his own hand, their lives being hid 
with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is our life, shall 
appear, then shall they also appear with him in glory. 



SECTION IV. 



LECTURE XIV.— GOOD WORKS, OR CHRIS- 
TIAN OBEDIENCE. 



Good works consist in living and acting in conformity to 
the will of God. The Christian religion is made up of faith, 
experience, and practice, and in this brief notice of good 
works, we only intend such as are peculiar to Christians who 
profess faith in the Son of God. Perhaps no one subject in 
religion has been more warmly controverted than this, or 
elicited wilder speculations from mortals prone to extremes, 
and yet none appears to be more simple in its elements, and 
easy of comprehension. Man naturally inclined to err, is 
ever disposed to place an undue estimate upon his own 
works, and the more so as he is dis-inclined to work, and 
does but little. The Lord has commanded us not only to 
depart from all evil, but to live soberly, righteously, and 
godly in this present world, and so to let our light shine, that 
others seeing our good works, may be constrained to glorify 
our Father who is in heaven. This is all right, and doubt- 
less good often results from such a course of living in many 
ways, and while the world has felt its influence, the faithful 
have sustained no loss, but been strengthened and comforted 
in their own hearts. It must not be supposed that works in 
order to be good, must be in every way perfect, or meritori- 
ous; works, however good and useful, cannot be meritorious 
when performed by redeemed sinners who are everlasting 
debtors to the Son of God; yet we may be under obligations 
no less weighty, and our service no less acceptable when 
rendered with an honest heart. 

(237) 



238 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

There appears to be no difficulty whatever in distinguishing 
between divine grace and good works. They are not the 
same, but widely different, nor can the one supply the place 
of the other, notwithstanding salvation is all of grace. Good 
works were never required nor designed to add anything to 
the efficacy of divine grace, but to evince its power by the 
motions of life in such as love and serve God. The Church 
of Rome in her departure from the vital doctrines of 
Christianity, introduced a vast amount of worse than useless 
rubbish, made up of the doctrines and commandments of 
men, claiming to be good works, to which they attached the 
idea of merit. These imaginary good works were totally at 
variance with the plan of salvation as it has been developed 
by the Saviour himself, and very soon displaced and set aside 
the doctrine of the cross and salvation by virtue of the 
merits of Christ. The Romists went still further, and taught 
that the efficacy of these works were more than sufficient to 
save those who performed them, and constituted a perma- 
nent fund for the salvation of others, by being united with 
the merits of Christ. This idle and worse than heathen 
dogma so excited the early reformers, that many of them 
in contending for the doctrine of salvation by grace, went so 
far as to attack the freedom of the will, and denied its 
cooperation with the Spirit in the acceptance of the 
remedial system, which seems to be the other extreme. The 
plan of salvation, as taught by Christ and his apostles, makes 
neither of these extremes a necessary consequence, but fully 
establishes both the freedom of man's soul under the 
economy of the gospel, and salvation by the grace of God 
alone. For if Jehovah requires of his creatures, no matter 
what, under any circumstances and dispensations which they 
may be in or surrounded with, he certainly requires no 
impossibilities — all must be right, and nothing more than a 
reasonable service, and just such as they can perform. And 
no matter what amount of grace may be necessary for the 
performance of such service, our minds are never to remove 
from first principles, but always consider that he who 
requires the service, furnishes all the necessary means for its 
performance in all cases. This I hold to be true in relation 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 239 

to all men, both saints and sinners, and we have no right to 
think that man can do his Heavenly Father's will without 
grace, nor that he is required to do it and is held accountable, 
where there is no grace provided and tendered him. What 
was grace provided for but for such as need it ? And what 
other views can we rationally and scripturally entertain ot 
grace, other than that it was in all respects adapted to meet 
the case for which it was provided in every way? If the 
Creator designed that his creatures should accept of grace in 
order to salvation, as we learn from his Word, we have no 
right to conclude that they cannot comply, nor to allege that 
such compliance would be detrimental in the least degree to 
the doctrine of grace. It is too manifest to be concealed 
from the most ordinary capacity, that while the Romists 
sapped the very foundation of the Christian religion by their 
imaginary good works capable of meriting heaven, that 
some of the early reformers in their praiseworthy advocacy 
of the precious doctrine of salvation by grace alone, did not 
check up at the right point, but suffered their zeal to carry 
them too far, in that they made an attack upon the agency of 
man. Enlightened candor compels us not only to ascribe all 
the glory of man's salvation to God; but, also to lay the 
blame of his ruin and eternal condemnation at his own door 
and upon his own soul. And wherever we find ourselves 
inclined to offer an infraction of one in defending the other, 
we ought to pause and reflect that God has manifestly taught 
both with equal clearness, and that neither may be immo- 
lated with his approbation. First then, let us receive it from 
the mouth of God, that salvation is of grace; and secondly, 
that man is responsible, and maintain both as best we can, so 
as to exclude all boasting and the absurd notion of meritori- 
ous works. It is more than probable that the main error of 
all one-idea men is this, that they have taken hold of some 
one solitary doctrine of the cross as though they were 
appointed guardians of it, and in their zeal for its defense^ 
have waged war upon other great truths of the same system, 
with little or no sympathy for their preservation. This is a 
demonstration of the truth that extremes beget extremes. 
The whole truth as it has come from God is equally ours, and 



240 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

we are so to regard it, without preference or prejudice, and 
no man is the guardian of one truth more than another. 
Therefore, if God's plan is to save men by grace, men are to 
accept it as he has thought best in his plan, and if he 
requires of his children good works and fruits, as they are 
called, let these be rendered with cheerful promptness, 
leaving the issue with the Lord. While the good works of 
the Lord's children are not meritorious, they have their uses, 
for Paul says : u And let ours also learn to maintain good 
works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful." — Titus 
in. 14. Let us receive it therefore as true, that the Lord has 
a purpose in these good works, and while they never lessen 
the comfort of his people, they are blessed by him to the 
furtherance of his cause and the extension of his Church. 
All the instrumentality of men which the Lord has seen fit 
to use for the enlightenment and conversion of the world, 
may properly be classed with good works, whether preaching, 
exhortation, prayer, alms, beneficence, relief of the poor, 
the fatherless, and the widow — all these are good works. 
The moral law is said to present the whole of our duty in 
two brief words, namely — love to God, and love to man. In 
his sermon on the Mount, our Lord taught his disciples how 
he would have them live. He taught them how to think, 
live, aud act — not only to forgive their friends, but their 
enemies, and also to pray for them ; to guard the heart, the 
eye, and the mouth; not to judge rashly, or speak evil of 
others ; to beware of covetousness and over-anxiety about 
the world, and to lay up treasure in heaven — and, in a 
word, to be heavenly-minded, holy, and humble. And Paul 
says, Rom. xn: " Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor 
that which is evil ; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly 
affectioned one to another, with brotherly love; in honor 
preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in 
spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribu- 
lation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the 
necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which 
persecute you; bless and curse not. Be not overcome of 
evil; but overcome evil with good." In speaking lightly 
of good works, we speak lightly of what the Lord com- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 241 

mends and approves in all his children, and contemn the 
light and salt of the Church, which is the active and efficient 
instrumentality of the world's conversion to God, as well as 
the great mark of distinction between the children of the 
Kingdom, and the children of the world. These works are 
no less necessary and fit in their place, because salvation 
is by grace alone ; for each has its own proper place in the 
Church of God, and there is truly no conflict between grace 
and good works, but the most perfect harmony. Man was 
formed for active life at first, nor is the divine plan changed 
in this respect in consequence of the fall ; he is still to exert 
all his powers for good under the economy of free grace, as 
well before as after his conversion, to the close of his earthly 
pilgrimage; and doubtless he will be an active being forever. 
Good works and kind offices in the church, are such as the 
Lord has seen fit to require of his people for reasons known 
to himself, and not altogether concealed from us. For we 
know that the Master who works himself, and went about 
doing good, having made it the duty of his children to work, 
will so far regard their works in his vineyard, as to impart to 
each a gospel penny in due time. And if the good Master, 
through goodness bestows it, it will be no less a precious 
boon to the faithful, although not of debt, but of free grace. 
It is selfish and unworthy of a Christian to look altogether 
at self-interest. Christians are commanded also to look at 
the things of others, or the good of others, in all their works 
and labors of love, as well as to themselves. Christianity 
was designed to be aggressive in its movements upon powers 
of darkness, and while its success depends upon divine grace, 
the weapons of Christian warfare are made up of a godly, 
energetic life, with a well tempered zeal, shining with a 
purifying light as they move through the world. By a very 
brief analysis of Christianity, we are presented with doctrine, 
experience, and practice, or a life of devotion to God. But 
there remains yet one constituent to complete and give 
vitality to the scheme, which is denominated divine grace, or 
the saving power, without which the scheme would be of 
little or no avail. By grace, we understand favor, but still it 
may be asked, what is grace? The Lord has said, "My 



242 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

grace is sufficient for you ; " " by grace ye are saved." That 
which saves us, therefore, is grace. It is denominated in the 
Scriptures of divine truth, the bread of life, the water of 
life that giveth life to the world ; and we are said to eat and 
drink these. "For unless ye eat of the flesh and drink of 
the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life in you." We 
are also said " to be washed and made white in the blood of 
the Lamb;" "and also washed and made pure with the 
water of life, which is thereafter a well of living water 
springing up in the soul." Fire is also said to purifiy us as 
gold, which, although a different figure from bread, blood, or 
water, must allude to the same thing. Now, in a liberal 
sense, we no more drink the blood and eat the flesh of the 
Son of God, than we eat fire; but we partake of the thing 
referred to by these figures, which is the saving grace of 
God — a divine purifier; a divine life-giving energy working 
in, and new creating the soul through the blood of atone- 
ment. The doctrines of Christianity teach the necessity and 
power of this grace in regulating both the heart and life, and 
present grace as the renewing power, and the form of sound 
words as the life regulator, and each has its place and use in 
the system of Christianity ; the one to give and sustain life, 
and the other as a rule to regulate it. Good works are not 
necessary, nor were they designed to merit heaven, not to 
add anything to the efficiency of divine grace, but they have 
their necessary use in the Church as the light and salt 
thereof; and blind indeed must he be, who does not perceive 
that Christian comfort and usefulness in life are connected 
with good works and godly living; and he who neglects 
and repudiates good works because salvation is of grace, is 
at as great a remove from the whole truth, as he who 
depends upon works to save him to the neglect of grace. 
These are wild and useless extremes. Let us have grace to 
save us and wash us from our sins, and let us work with all 
our soul and might all along the journey of life, and depend 
upon God's grace to give the increase and crown our life 
with usefulness. As Paul says, " For to me to live is Christ, 
and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit 
of my labor: yet what I shall choose, I wot not; for I am in 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 243 

a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with 
Christ, which is far better; nevertheless to abide in the flesh 
is more needful for you." — Phil. i. 21-24. It is ours to know 
the truth, feel the power, and live the Christian life, and 
keep a conscience void of offense towards God and man. 
And finally, to add to our faith virtue, to our virtue knowl- 
edge, temperance, patience, goodness, brotherly kindness, 
and charity, and yield all the fruits of the Spirit, that we be 
neither barren nor unfruitful in the Lord's vineyard. For if 
we sow good seed plentifully, we shall reap an abundant 
harvest with joy and gladness of heart. 

In our approach to this subject, we can but feel to rely 
alone upon the Lord as our guide in relation to good works, 
their utility and reward, whether any, or what kind and 
amount of reward will result to the faithful. It has been 
assumed, that if there is no reward there is no motive to 
prompt to good works; and on the other hand it is alleged 
that if there is a reward it must interfere with the doctrine 
of salvation by grace. Here it may be well to remark, that 
salvation which is by grace, is received by faith, and this 
faith which receives Christ and with him eternal life, is 
no where in the Scriptures of divine truth considered a work — 
it receives all and works none. Here life eternal is made 
certain as a free gift. But after this, faith works by love in 
the renewed heart and overcomes the world, the flesh, and 
the devil. For Paul says : " I am crucified with Christ : 
nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and 
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of 
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I 
do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness came 
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." — Gal. n. 20, 21. 
When Christ by faith had become his life, then he was 
saved by grace, and his works as a saved Christian could not 
frustrate the grace of God, and while he was saved by grace, 
his good works after that had nothing to do with that which 
was already ratified and sealed; yet they might be rewarded, 
and that reward constitute a crown of life when the Lord 
shall reward every man according to his works. Then we 
see that salvation is of grace, and eternal life the gift of 



244 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

God, and yet there is ample scope for God to reward good 
works, as lie manifestly has promised in his Word ; and the 
child of God who is saved by faith and has eternal life, does 
not work for eternal life, but he works because he has it, 
and his good Master will be sure to give him yet more, and 
not forget his works and labors of love. On something like 
this principle, God may reward saints in heaven and holy 
angels who serve him forever, while we see that their works 
have nothing to do with what they already have ; they 
cannot be conditions of what is ratified and sealed forever. 
Those who have been perplexed in their minds, and unable 
to comprehend how salvation could be altogether of grace, 
and good works have any reward, have been the instruments 
of their own confusion, by suspending the soul's salvation, 
not upon the simple exercise of faith in Christ, but upon a 
whoie life-time of good works, and these works considered as 
entering into the condition of life eternal. Hence, they are 
unable to see how it is that such good works have nothing 
to do in securing a title to eternal life, when they have 
conceived that God had suspended it upon that as the 
condition. But when they come to the Bible, they will see 
that he has suspended it upon no such thing, nor is it 
postponed until death; nor upon anything but faith in 
Christ. "He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting 
life." " 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 245 



LECTURE XV.— A SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF 
THE DOCTRINE OF SANCTIFICATION. 



PART I. 



The doctrine of sanctification is taught in the Bible, and 
demands the prayerful consideration of all Christians. We 
may profit by all that the Lord hath spoken, if we attend in 
the proper way to the instructions given by our Heavenly 
Father. This, as well as every other doctrine taught us b\ 
inspiration, has been the subject of no small amount of 
controversy. Nevertheless, it is not to be passed by with 
indifference on that account; nor through fear of giving 
offense to those who have the mind of Christ. 

The word should be defined with strict regard to the person 
or thing spoken of, in order to avoid confusion and contra- 
diction. Divines agree that a good definition of sanctify, or 
sanctification, is to separate from one purpose, and devote 
or consecrate to another. Then, religiously to separate from 
the world and sin, and to consecrate to the service of God, is 
to sanctify. When a sinner is separated or delivered from 
the power and dominion of sin, and set apart, or consecrated 
to the service of God, he is said to be regenerated or born 
again. Hence, the words born again, regeneration, and 
sanctification, mean the same thing; and those who have 
been regenerated, or born again, have been sanctified. The 
Holy Spirit is the sanctifier and regenerator. Here we may 
reasonably ask, whether regeneration is progressive or instan- 
taneous? If regeneration is progressive, then sanctification 
is so. But if regeneration is instantaneous, then sanctification 
must be so. We do certainly entertain the opinion that regen- 
eration is instantaneous, and that whenever the word sanctify 



D MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

occurs in the Bible, where the reference is to man, and it 
signifies a purifying process in his soul, it is instantaneous like 
regeneration, being that far identically the same work of the 
Holy Spirit. All orthodox divines, so far as known to us, 
believe that sanctification is necessary in order to admittance 
into heaven, and that the unsanctified cannot, and will not, be 
admitted into that holy place. But the sanctified are fit for 
heaven, and will be admitted into it. 

Now, it is certain that the new birth fits the soul for heaven, 
and all who are wise in the Scriptures will admit that such as 
are born of the Spirit are the Lord's own dear children, and, 
as such, will be saved. If, then, sanctification saves, and the 
new birth saves, they are certainly the same work. Why 
then speak of the necessity of the regenerated being sanctified 
in order to be admitted into heaven, as though another and a 
greater power must operate in the soul than that which 
operated in the work of regeneration? Is it said that 
regeneration is the commencement of the work, and that 
sanctification completes it? Certainly, if the commencement 
of the work is the new birth, it must continue to be so, until 
the work is completed; for it never can be the new birth while 
the work is in an unfinished state; the entire process must be 
carried through, and the soul must be completely and fully 
born again, or it never could be said that such an one was 
born again, while there remained anything to be done, to 
make a finished work of it. As to whether the new birth 
qualifies a sinner for heaven or no, we have but one appeal 
to make, and that shall be directly to Jesus Christ. He says, 
John in. 3, 6, 7 : "Except a man be born again, he cannot see 
the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is 
flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit. Marvel 
not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again." Christ 
did not say positively to Nicodemus that such as were born 
again should enter into the kingdom of God; but this is 
plainly and unequivocally implied. He, no doubt, taught 
him the true lesson, and what was essentially necessary, and 
all that was essentially so, in order to become a member of 
the spiritual kingdom, a child of God, and an heir of life 
eternal. And what was it? He did not say you must be 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 247 

born again, and then undergo another and still higher order 
of purification ; you must be sanctified in addition to regen- 
eration, or you will come short of the blessing, and be shut 
out of heaven, and go to perdition. Ho, he taught him that 
he must be born again — born of the Spirit. That makes the 
new creature in Christ Jesus the spiritual man, the child of 
God, and heir of heaven. We are to understand that when 
Christ told Hicodemus that he could not see the kingdom of 
God, unless he was born again, that although he did not 
affirm that he should, on being born again, be blessed, yet it 
amounts to the same as a positive assurance. For without it 
he could not, but with it he should. One who is born of 
God, is born an heir, as truly as he is born a child. Then 
if children are heirs, and heirs have a real qualification for 
their relationship and inheritance, that is just what the plan 
of salvation contemplates, and proposes to such as believe in 
Christ. None of our fallen race can be saved without being 
born again. But certainly all can who do pass under that 
renovating ordeal. If this had not been so, certainly Christ 
would have told Hicodemus; for as much as the entire drift 
of his conversation with him was, to teach him what was 
essentially necessary as a meetness for heaven. If the new 
birth and sanctification are one and the same thing, in so far 
as it relates to a purifying process in the soul of man, then 
such as have been born again have been sanctified ; and all 
who have been sanctified, have been born of the Spirit, and 
are not to expect and look for another change of a higher 
order. Then, if regeneration and the renewing of the Holy 
Ghost be a gradual work, requiring a life time, or a number 
of years, in its accomplishment, the same must be true of the 
new birth. But if the one is instantaneous, so is the other ; and 
no one can be said to have attained either before the work 
shall have been completed. So soon as anyone is sanctified, 
he is born again, and is prepared for death, whether the work 
be progressive or instantaneous — whether it be at the moment 
of death or in early life. 

Our attention, however, is called to one momentous 
consideration at this point of the investigation. Ho one can 
have the spirit of Christ before he is his ; never will the Spirit 



248 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

bear witness with his spirit that he is a child before he is 
changed by the Spirit, and adopted into the spiritual family, 
and constitued an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. 
As this is in perfect keeping with the Word of God, we are 
led to the conclusion, that if sauctification or the new birth 
does not take place until death, or near that time, that no 
one can feel the comforts of religion, or have any evidence of 
his acceptance with God before that time. To say otherwise, 
is to impeach the Holy Spirit with bearing false testimony 
for as much as he would, in that case, testify to what is not, 
and give comfortable assurance of heaven to one who is yet a 
child of wrath, and exposed to perdition. God promises 
truly to save such as believe ; but never seals that promise to 
the heart by his Holy Spirit, giving comfort and peace through 
Jesus Christ until reconciled and changed into the image 
of God. 

The promise may be made, and is made to sinners; but the 
testimony of the Spirit is only given to justified, regenerated 
believers. If God has laid down any condition of regenera- 
tion, or sauctification, it must be certain that he will not do 
the work contemplated in the plan of salvation, before the 
subject to be changed complies with the condition ; and it 
must be equally certain that so soon as there is a compliance, 
that he will not fail, nor delay, to do all that he promised. 
Yes, if the promise is to save, the saving work will be done, 
whatever that may be or whatever it may be called. But 
why God should change one who believes with all his soul, 
only in part, when faith is the condition of all the blessings 
of the gospel, and still leave such under the power and 
dominion of sin, it is as unreasonable as it is anti-scriptural. 
God is not pleased with sin, that he should leave it in the 
believer's soul ; nor does he do his work so imperfectly. He 
does his work well, and makes a thorough change of the 
heart at once, and pronounces, as in the first creation, that it 
is not only good, but very good. He is like a refiner and 
purifier of silver ; and the refining power is like the fire and 
as fuller's soap — it " purges the conscience from the dead 
works to serve the living God." See Heb. x. 14, 15,16, 17: 
" For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 249 

sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost is also a witness to us ; 
for after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I 
will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; 1 will 
put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write 
them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no 
more." This appears to be a thorough work; sins once 
blotted out are remembered no more; the sanctified are by 
the blood of Christ perfected forever ; yes, the blood of Christ 
cleanseth us from all sin. Here it may he asked, When is 
this done, and is the work of sanctification progressive or is 
it instantaneous? Here let the Bible answer. John I. 12, 
13: " But as many as received him, to them gave he power 
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his 
name : which were born not of blood, nor of the will of 
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Then Peter 
says, 1 Peter, I. 22, 23 : " Seeing ye have purified your souls 
in obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love 
of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure' 
heart fervently; being born again, not of corruptible seed 
but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and 
abideth forever." Here it will be seen that some had their 
souls purified, and loved the brethren unfeignedly, and had 
become the sons of God. But when were they purified, 
and made sons of God? We are informed that they were 
purified and constituted sons when they were born again ; 
and they were born again — when? At the time they believed 
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, then, is purity by the Spirit ; 
sons and heirs following in close connection with the new 
birth ; and all these in close and immediate connection with 
faith in Christ. Peter calls such elect, 1 Peter i. 2-4, "Elect 
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through 
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the 
blood of Jesus Christ ; grace unto you and peace be multiplied." 
Then he tells us to what these sanctified, elect ones, are 
elected to : " To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." 

Paul speaks of sanctification in his epistles; and in his 
first to the Corinthians (chap. I. verse 30) he says: "But 
of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto 
17 



250 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
redemption.'' Then in chap. vi. verse 11, he reminds them 
of their former turpitude and wickedness before God, 
and says : "And such were some of you: but ye are washed, 
but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the 
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." Those persons 
were sanctified when they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who was at that time made unto them sanctification, etc. 
They were then washed and cleansed by the blood of sprinkling 
that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Paul every 
where, when speaking of the true Christian, speaks of him 
as being thus sanctified. See Rom. vi. 2-7 : "How shall we 
that are dead to sin live any longer therein ; for he that is 
dead is freed from sin." And to the Collossians (chap in. 
verses 2, 3, 4), he says : " Set your affections on things above, 
not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is 
hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall 
appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." This 
is plain and strong language, and is in perfect accordance 
with the other proof which we have given from the Bible to 
establish our position. We shall next introduce the words of' 
Christ to Peter at the time he washed the feet of his disciples. 
Peter, it will be seen, refused for a time to let the Lord wash 
his feet. Then Christ said unto him, " If I wash thee not, 
thou hast no part with me." Then Peter submitted, and 
said unto him, " Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands 
and my head." Then Jesus said unto him, "He that is 
washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every 
whit, and ye are clean, but not all." Christ declared them 
all, except Judas, to be clean every whit. We can come to no 
other conclusion than that they, having been washed from 
their sins by Christ, were thoroughly washed and cleansed 
by his blood, which cleanseth from all sin. And in 2 Cor. 
v. 1, Paul says: "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a 
new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things 
are become new." If there remains a difficulty in the mind 
of anyone as to whether sanctification, as a purifying process, 
takes place at the time of regeneration, it cannot be because 
there is any want of proof or clearness in that proof; for 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 251 

that is ample — the Bible is clear on that point. All who are 
in Christ are new creatures; old things having passed away, 
behold all things are become new. Language could not well 
be plainer or stronger. 

The only point that could be controverted is not whether 
such as are in Christ are new creatures; but, rather, what is 
the process which brings about that union with Christ, that 
crucifies the old man, and hides the new man with Christ in 
God. If the new birth accomplished by the Holy Ghost 
does that, which will hardly be disputed, it must be clear to 
all that it takes place at the time of justification by faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and at no other time. The 
conclusion, therefore, to which we have come is, that 
whenever sanctification signifies a cleansing of the soul of 
man from sin and his consecration to God, it is identically 
the same work of the Spirit which is, in Bible language, 
called regeneration, or being born again ; and that all who 
have been born again, have been sanctified; and all who 
have been sanctified, have been born again; and that the 
change is instantaneous and radical in the soul. At that time 
the Spirit seals the sanctified to life eternal, and dwells in and 
comforts and fills the heart with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory, giving an assurance of the heavenly inheritance. In 
fifty or more places where the word sanctify and sanctification 
occurs in the Bible, we have found but comparatively few 
instances where it signifies a refining process in the soul of 
man. It frequently refers to things which have no moral 
quality in themselves; such as the vessels of the sanctuary 
and the blessings and comforts of life, which are said to be 
" sanctified by the Word of God and prayer." It sometimes 
has reference to Jehovah. See Ezek. xxxviii. 23 : " Thus 
will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself," etc.; Isaiah vin. 
13 : " Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your 
fear and let him be your dread ; " and in. John x. 36, it is said 
by Christ, in reference to himself, ''Say ye of him whom 
the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world," etc. ; 
1 Peter in. 15: " But sanctify the Lord God in your 
hearts," etc. . 

From the passages quoted above in reference to God, we 



252 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

understand that he alone is to he feared, honored, loved, and 
worshiped by us; and of Christ that he was chosen, anointed, 
and sent into the world to accomplish God's purpose of mercy 
and free grace in the redemption of our fallen race, that they 
might be sanctified by his blood. 

We shall now pursue the subject with reference to man, 
and see how far the work of sanctitication extends as a 
purifying process. 

Man has a body as well as a soul, and both were ruined by 
the fall. But as both were formed for immortality, and to 
glorify and enjoy God, both were redeemed by Christ, and to 
be changed into the likeness of him who redeemed them on 
gospel principles and in conformity with gospel stipulations. 
We doubt not the power of God or his grace to change man, 
soul and hody at one and the same time, if such were his 
plan. But we see that such is not his plan ; and that while 
the blood of Christ applied to the soul by the Holy Ghost 
delivers it from the power and dominion of sin, and raises it 
into newness of life in Christ Jesus, he works no such change 
in the body — no, none in this life, except by discipline. If 
the body were sam-tified when the soul is, or even in this life, 
it would go as did Enoch and Elijah with the soul in glory; 
and no sooner would it descend into the grave, than the 
sanctified soul would descend into hell. 

Our position, therefore, is, that the soul is radically changed 
when justified by faith in Christ; and the body at the 
resurrection, and not hefore. We have no evidence from 
reason or the Word of God to think that there is any change 
in our fleshly bodies in this life whatever, and that they do 
not differ from what they were before the sanctification of the 
soul, or from those of the unregenerate, except, as we have 
said, they are better disciplined, managed, and led, and 
brought into subjection to the law of the spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus our Lord. This position being laid down, we shall 
undertake to prove it from the Word of God. See Gal. v. 16, 
17 : u This I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil 
the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, 
and the spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one 
to the other; so that ye cannot do the things ye would. " 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 253 

If these words of Paul were spoken of regenerate persons, 
the proof is clear that there existed in them hostility between 
the flesh and the spirit, and that there was no change in the 
flesh corresponding with a change of the soul. Speaking of 
the flesh and spirit constituting the same individuals, he says 
these are contrary the one to the other; they are opposed to 
each other. This cannot be said of those who are unrenewed. 
For nothing appears to be better established, both from reason 
and Scripture, than the fact that no such conflicting powers 
and influences exist in nn regenerate persons; both soul and 
body are completely under the dominion of sin, and feel and 
act in perfect unison — both are agreed to hate God and his 
holy law, to oppose his divine will, and serve the father of 
lusts and lies. This is true of all unrenewed persons, 
undeniably so. If this is proven, we may proceed to prove 
that Paul had direct reference to truly regenerate persons in 
the foregoing quotation, when he speaks of opposition between 
the flesh and the spirit Now, as there exists no such opposites 
in the sinner before regeneration, let the grace of God operate 
upon both, and change both, and certainly there will be no 
warfare after the change ; both being made new by the same 
power, both will cheerfully unite in the service of God, and 
follow the leadings of the Spirit. But if one is changed and 
not the other, then there will be the war; and the will and 
desires of the spirit will be against the flesh, and the desires 
of the flesh will be in hostile array against the spirit. We 
shall draw further proof from the seventh chapter to the 
Romans. Paul speaks in the first person, and no doubt alluded 
to himself, together with all other regenerated persons, as we 
shall attempt to prove. Rom vn. 16, 17, 18-21, 22, 23, 24, 
25: "If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto 
the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, 
but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is 
in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with 
me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. I 
find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present 
with me; for I delight in the law of God after the inward 
man. But I see another law in my members warring against 
the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the 



254 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

law of sin which is in my members. O, wretched man that 
I am : who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? I 
thank God through Christ our Lord. So then with the mind 
I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of 
sin." Paul speaks of himself, as we have said, and what he 
says of himself was then, and still is, true of all persons who 
are in the same state he was in at the time he uttered the 
above emphatic language. That he alluded to himself cannot 
be denied; for he speaks in the first person, and says I am 
thus and so, and do thus and so. The inquiry is, was he at 
the time a changed man, and under the light and guidance of 
the Holy Spirit? Most evidently he was; for he says: 
"I delight in the law of God after the inward man, and with 
the mind I myself serve the law of God." This is as much 
as can be said of any truly regenerate man ; that he delights 
in the law of God in his soul, and serves God in spirit and in 
truth. In the same epistle (chapter vin. verse 14) it is 
written : " For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they 
are the sons of God." He was a son of God, for he was led 
by the Spirit of God when he served him with his mind and 
delighted in that service after the inward man. But now let 
us see what he says of his body, or flesh, at the same time he 
thus speaks of his soul. Does he use one word that even 
squints at the idea of a change in his body or flesh? Not 
one; for he says: "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) 
dwelleth no good thing." And there was a law in his members 
warring against the law of his mind, so that when he would 
do good, evil was present. This is true according to the Word 
of God, reason, and experience ; and all good men can attest 
that while they feel the evidence of a change, and the Spirit 
of God bearing witness with theirs that they are his children, 
there is, nevertheless, the same corruption and evil in the 
flesh as before. And here the war begins, and continues until 
the soul and body part. These, says Paul, are contrary the 
one to the other ; the spirit lusteth (or desireth) against the 
flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. Paul, however, kept 
his body under and brought it into subjection, and so must 
we. If, like Paul, we have a thorn in the flesh, and we 
cannot get rid of it, and attain to the resurrection of the 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 255 

body before the appointed time, let the same assurance which 
God gave him — that his grace was sufficient for him — animate 
and arm us for the contest, while we press toward the mark 
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 
Before sanctification, all men are carnally minded. But after 
sanctification they are spiritually minded. To be carnally 
minded, says Paul, is death; but to be spiritually 
minded is life and peace. Now, as we have seen that 
the soul is sanctified, when born of the Spirit, while the 
flesh remains the same, having no good thing in it, it may be 
a matter of interest to know how our bodies are to be 
sanctified. We answer that as there is a sanctification which 
only means a consecration to the service of God, as truly as 
as there is a sfinctinVation which purifies and fits for the hap- 
piness of heaven at the time we believe in Christ and are 
born again, we are to consecrate our bodies to the service of 
God, like the sanctified vessels of the temple of God, and 
although they are not positively holy, they may be cerimoni- 
ally so. See 2 Tim. II. 21: "If a man, therefore, purge 
himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified 
and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good 
work." Christ, in his mediatorial prayer, prays that his 
disciples might be sanctified in the sense above. mentioned. 
John xvii. 16, 17, 18: "They are not of the world, even as 
I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth : 
thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even 
so have [ also sent them into the world." The sanctification 
of those men who were not of the world, as Christ says, was 
to qualify them by spiritual endowments for the work where- 
unto Christ had called them. Therefore he sanctified himself, 
(as it is said in verse 19) that they might be sanctified or 
endowed with power from on high, and glorify God in their 
souls and bodies as sanctified vessels. But the body, or 
bodies, of Christians will not be sanctified in the other sense 
or made holy until Christ shall come with power and great 
glory. 

Here we shall anticipate two objections. The first is that 
the doctrine of the entire sanctification of the soul at the 
time of justification and the new birth, is unsafe. The second 



256 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

s against the opinion that the body undergoes no purifying 
process in this life except by discipline. To the first we 
answer that we cannot see how any doctrine can be unsafe or 
of a dangerous tendency which is so purely scriptural. If it 
should be said that the purity of life does not correspond, 
and that many who profess faith in Christ are loose and 
imperfect in their conduct frequently, it will be admitted that 
many who truly make high pretensions and loud professions 
are so much like the world and so little changed from what 
they were before, that we dare not say that they have passed 
from death unto life. And, indeed, it would be saying but 
little for the cause of religion and the work of the Holy 
Ghost to say that he had wrought a change in them. The 
tree is to be known by the fruit. Make the tree good, and 
the fruit will be good. And this kind of a tree is an ever- 
green: its leaves do not fade, and the fruit thereof does not 
fail ; it bears much fruit, and yields it every year and every 
month ; and the Lord be praised that there are such trees in 
the old orchard of Christ. But there is danger somewhere, 
and we shall try to see where it is. Verily, the danger lies 
in making the standard too low rather than too high. God's 
standard is high, and his work in the soul is both great and 
good, and those who have passed the refining ordeal must be 
greatly changed and widely different from what they were 
before; and if not, we look upon it as a slander upon the 
Holy Ghost to say that he hath wrought a change in them. 
The danger and detriment consists in making the standard 
of the new birth and Christian experience to approximate so 
near to that of a Christless convicted sinner as to blot out 
the line of demarkation, and leave no space between. Then 
take him into the Church, and tell him that he is on the way to 
sanctification, and that it will come upon him by degrees, and 
you have him in the broad road to perdition. When the 
Lord God changes a sinner's heart, he will feel it and know 
it in his own soul, and, moreover, he will, by the grace of 
God, make the world see the light and feel the burning heat 
thereof. But this progressive regeneration which creeps 
upon souls so gradually that neither themselves nor anyone 
else knows anything about it, is the devil's sleigh, in which 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 257 

thousands, we fear, are gliding along in their slumbers to 
wake up in hell. The Bible no where speaks of the soul 
being changed in part only; for God is the author of it, and 
he never has been the author of an unfinished work. And 
whenever he casts out the strong man, he tills the palace with 
his own presence. Now, if God dwells in the Christian as 
his word declares, it must be true that the change is complete, 
or he would not dw T ell there; for God is holy, and will not 
dwell in an unholy heart. 

The second objection we are to notice is urged against the 
opinion that the body undergoes no change in this life, but 
remains corrupt. The objector alleges that this doctrine 
approaches ver} 7 near the Manichean heresy, ar- 1 locates evil 
altogether in matter ; and, moreover, its tendency is licentious, 
for as much as it affords a ready apology for sin. We reply that 
the Bible teaches the total depravity and corruption of both 
soul and body by nature. But when the Spirit of God reno- 
vates the soul, not the body, as we have proven, if the 
remaining corruption is located in the flesh, according to this 
opinion, it is manifestly where the Bible locates it. Sin is 
the cause of all suffering and of death. Let the cause be 
removed, and the effect will cease. Remove sin from the 
body and it will not, it cannot die. The argument, therefore, 
must close here, for all die. 

As to the licentiousness of the doctrine or its evil tendency, 
we can see nothing of this in it. If man's soul, changed by 
divine grace with God in it, is stronger than the flesh, then 
there could be no apology for wilful sin ; nor would the 
liability be as great as if the soul were only changed in part, 
as some think, and the body in part, and then left to contend, 
single-handed and alone, against the w T orld, the flesh, and the 
devil. Those professors of religion who commit sin willingly, 
and apparently with pleasure, are not led into that course by 
a polluted body only; but it is next to certain that both soul 
and body arealike wedded to sin. Paul, .speaking of Christians 
and to such, says : " How shall we that are dead to sin live any 
longer therein." And in Rom. vi. 12, 13: "Let not sin, 
therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it 
in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as 



258 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

instruments of unrigbteusness unto sin; but yield yourselves 
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your 
members as instruments of righteousness unto God." He 
then promises, in the next verse, that sin shall not have 
dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under 
graee. While the doctrine for which we have been contend- 
ing — that the soul is changed but the body unchanged and 
impure — is further proven by the passages last quoted, it is 
clearly shown that there is neither necessity nor compulsion 
for such to sin, but they can and ought to yield their members 
as instruments of righteousness in the services of God, and 
know how to possess tneir vessels in sanctification or conse- 
cration to him. In this way the Christian glorifies G<>d in his 
body and spirit which are his, and by the Spirit and grace 
of God overcomes the world, the flesh, and the devil. But 
neither of these enemies, though conquered, evei becomes 
holy except the body, as we have said, at the resurrection of 
the just. We may close this argument in the language of 
Paul, Rom. viii. 1, 2.: " There is, therefore, now no condem- 
nation to them which arc in Christ Jesus, who walk not after 
the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of 
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin 
and death." 

We shall next notice three different opinions on sanctifica- 
tion, which have been held and advocated by professed 
Christians : 

The first is, that sanctification is progressive from the 
commencement to its consummation. 

The second is, that regeneration is instantaneous, but is 
only a partial change, and that sanctification commences 
where regeneration ends, and completes the work by a 
gradual but certain process 

The third is, that regeneration is instantaneous and 
sanctification also; both are instantaneous, and take place at 
different times, being preceded by the enlightening and 
awakening influence of the Holy Spirit, and that the body 
attains to a very high degree of perfection, if not to sinless 
purity in this life. 

To the first we have already entered our serious objection. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. • 259 

We titid not only no warrant for it in the Bible, but so far as 
we have been able to see, the sacred volume teaches the 
contrary doctrine. If such a change should be from one to 
forty years in progress, never before its consummation could 
the subject of it have any evidence thereof from the author — 
the Holy Spirit. All this time he must be in the dark as to 
his acceptance with God ; and never could sj-.y I know that my 
Redeemer liveth; or, that if this earthly house of my taber- 
nacle were dissolved, I have a building of God, an house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. All this time he 
must be a child of the devil, as he cannot be the child of 
G>k1 before he has the Spirit of Christ. And to serve God 
in spirit and in truth, it were impossible for anyone to do so 
who has not his Spirit abiding in them. 

If there be any passage in the Bible which favors this 
opinion, it must be where our Lord compares the kingdom of 
heaven to leaven, which being cast into three measures of 
meal, leavened the whole lump. This parable, however, 
only proves that the kingdom is progressive in the world, 
while each individual member composing the lump or great 
whole may be, and doubtless is, leavened at once whenever 
it comes in contact with divine grace. We are taught the 
same thing in Daniel's interpretation of the king's vision, 
where he says : " The stone that smote the image became a 
great mountain, and filled the whole earth." And also by 
the parable of the mustard seed, which became a great tree, and 
spread far and wide. It is plain from these passages that the 
progressive movement spoken of relates to the world, and 
not to a progressive work of grace in the soul of each 
individual who believes in Christ, and is justified and regen- 
erated and at once united to Christ, the living head — the rock 
of his salvation. This opinion is so very absurd that we may 
drop it with this remark, that it makes religion, experimental 
living religion, the most perfect blank, and allows of no 
difference between the veriest sinners and Christians, except 
in morals, and barely in that. For as to comfort, neither can 
have any, and neither have any assurance of heaven until 
that long process is ended. 

The second theory is but little better, though it allows 



260 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

regeneration to be instantaneous. For the change is partial 
and so imperfect, that without sanctitieation or a further 
change, the subject of it could not, and would not, get to 
heaven. But while the advocates of this scheme appear to 
connect it with the doctrine of final perseverance, and claim 
for the soul, thus partly renewed, some comforts of the Holy 
Ghost, it is nevertheless liable to the same objections which 
stand out against the first opinion. Although the change 
is instantaneous, it differs but in shade from the former scheme, 
which also maintains a small beginning, which must have been 
as instantaneous as in the latter case. 

But now let us inquire whether such a soul, only changed 
in part, is born again ? The answer must be no ; he is partly 
born and partly not. Now can such a soul as this, or rather 
one in such a half way condition, have any testimony from 
God's Spirit of a change? Christ did not cast out devils in 
that way ; when he cast them out, he said come out of him, or 
them; and straightway, by the finger of God, the work was 
done. Then, and not before, does the Lord make his abode 
with such, and fill their hearts with joy unspeakable and full 
of glory. The change must be complete in the soul before it 
can be united to Christ, and have an assurance from the 
Spirit of acceptance with God, as a child and an heir of his. 
But I am met with this text: " Being confident of this very 
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will 
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." — Phil. I. 6. Paul 
says that the good work begun, will be consummated at the 
coming of Jesus Christ, as we understand it. For he says in 
another place of the Christian, "that he is dead and his life 
is hid with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is his life, 
shall appear, then he shall appear with him in glory." Now 
it is certain that the soul cannot be alluded to in this last 
instance; for that goes to Christ at the moment of death, and 
truly appears with him in glory : but the body is not changed, 
and does not appear with him in glory until his second com- 
ing. Then we may understand that to be what is meant by 
the passage, " hath begun a good work in you," etc., that the 
work of salvation will be performed in the body in the day 
of the Lord Jesus, and both soul and body shall appear with 






LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 261 

him in glory. Man's salvation is therefore not performed, or 
consummated, until that day. But we learn from Paul, that 
it is as certain to be completed as God begins it, and the sal- 
vation of the body is as certain as that of the soul, in which 
the saving work first begins. And here let us remark that 
the change in both is thorough, and done in an instant — the 
body "will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye, at the sound of the last trump/' like as the soul is by the 
Spirit, at the time of regeneration. The only progressive 
work of which we have any knowledge from the Word of 
God, is more properly an increase in wisdom and spiritual 
strength, which is illustrated by the babe, the young man, 
and the oid man in Christ. These are all alike perfect, but 
not alike wise and strong. The old man is wiser than the 
young man, and the young man is wiser and stronger than 
the babe in Christ; but the babe in Christ is as fit for heaven 
as the young or old man in Christ. Their lives are all hid 
with Christ in God. Now, as to a purifying work in the soul ? 
aside from and succeeding regeneration, called sanctification, 
the true Christian is enabled more and more to die 
unto sin and live unto God. If by dying unto sin is meant 
greater purity of heart than was realized in the new birth, I 
cannot find a warrant for it in the Bible. 

But if this dying unto sin, etc., is in the flesh, and we are 
to understand that there is at any time in this life any positive 
purity in it, we hold it to be an absurdity, contradicted by the 
Bible and the history of mankind, except in two cases — 
Enoch and Elijah. If, however, nothing more is meant by it 
than greater conformity in external deportment to the law of 
God, and a more correct life, then we subscribe to the senti- 
ment as Scriptural and good. 

The third scheme is, that both regeneration and sanctifica- 
tion are instantaneous, and are preceded by divine awakenings 
by the Holy Spirit; and that the former begins the work and 
the latter completes it, etc. 

The advocates of this theory maintain, as we understand 
them, that no one is by regeneration alone sufficiently purified 
for admittance into heaven, and that dying without the other 
change, called sanctification, would go to perdition. They, 




262 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

moreover, contend that many of the regenerate fail to attain 
sanctitication, and that the sanctified may fall from that high 
attainment and be lost forever and ever. Having already 
entered our objections, both to the idea of the work of 
regeneration being a partial change, as well as that of the 
purification of the bod}' in this life, we shall say nothing 
more on that subject now, but briefly examine the doctrine 
in relation to a second change, called sanctitication. This 
latter change is supposed to be preceded by conviction for sin, 
like that which precedes regeneration, and all the circum- 
stances are the same, with this difference only: the second is 
called sanctification, and may not require a second justifica- 
tion, though faith is as necessary an antecedent as in case of 
the first change. Those, however, who advocate this opinion, 
holding as they do the doctrine of apostacy, must and do 
contend that such as fall from either a state of regeneration 
or sanctification, must be justified a second or third time, as 
the case may be, before regeneration and sanctification can 
take place. But, then, it may be that if the regenerate person 
goes on from regeneration to sanctification without falling 
back, that he may he further changed on the same foundation 
which authorized the first change. If this is so, why might 
not both changes have taken place at one and the same time ? 
What reason can be assigned for delay? Surely none; and 
it is next to certain that the Bihle does not teach that such 
is not the case. The foundation upon which heaven and 
glory are vouchsafed to sinners is in one word the great 
atonement of Christ. The same must be the foundation of 
justification, and also of the complete sanctification of the 
soul. Now, as the atonement when received by faith, is fully 
sufficient to justify the believer from all things, and authorize 
a change in part, why may not that change be as complete at 
once as is authorized and contemplated by the justifying 
consideration ? One thing to yonr mind is clear — if the justi- 
fying consideration contains the meritorious cause of complete 
justification, certainly it does of complete sanctification ; and 
he who justices the believer in view of that consideration is 
certain, sooner or later, to make the change as complete as the 
justification and the foundation of it. And as the advocates 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 263 

of this opinion of two great changes in man believe that the 
first is instantaneous and at the time of justification, and can 
neither give reason or Scripture why the change should not 
be consummated without any delay on the part of God, we 
may safely conclude that the change is thorough at once, and 
as instantaneous as justification; for God does both. The 
error of this scheme consists in making a distinction between 
two great changes, between which many long years may inter- 
vene, when there is no difference or distinction. This may 
be proven from the fact that the meritorious cause of both is 
the same unit; and if it can and does procure the one 
instantaneously, certainly it does the other at the same instant, 
or it never does. Something else must do it aside from the 
atonement. And what can this something be? It is a 
nonentity, as works cannot do it. It. may further be remarked, 
that the idea of a second conviction like unto that which 
precedes the first change, is supposed to precede the second. 
This affords additional evidence to our mind that it is 
regeneration all the time, which has either been divided, 
misapprehended, or covered up in clouds and smoke; for 
conviction does precede the new birth, according to the Bible. 
But where is it said in that book that it precedes and warns 
such as are changed by the Spirit of another and higher 
change? God does not do that thing, nor does the Bible so 
teach. For no sooner is the first change wrought in the soul 
by the Holy Spirit, than he bears witness in them and with 
their spirit, that they are children and heirs of God. But as 
to his convicting them in view of another change, if that were 
done at any time it would as likely be at that instant as at any 
time in after life. Such, however, is not the case; for the 
moment of regeneration is one of peace with God, through 
the Lord Jesus Christ. It, moreover, appears to us strange 
indeed, that any one should entertain for one moment the 
sentiment that God would convict a justified, regenerated soul 
of sin after having received Christ, and with him all that the 
gospel proposes as the meritorious cause of complete and 
eternal salvation. What would, or could such conviction be 
for? If it should be said that he needs further purity, it may 
readily be responded that God has undertaken to do that 



264 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

work, and would not convict his creature in reference to 
what he must do, when he has done all that he was required 
to do. He has believed in Christ and is justified. What 
more is necessary in order to a thorough work? What more 
would God have the soul to do than to believe in Christ; and 
what more would he have him receive than Christ, and him 
crucified? Nothing more; that i3 all. There conviction 
must end, and peace and joy begin. It may, however, be said 
by the advocates of a second change, that we do not hold that 
it is preceded by conviction. If that is so, what could ever 
prompt any one to seek for higher attainments in this respect 
when the Word of God says of such, and to such as are born 
of the Spirit, "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but 
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
Spirit of our God." We come to the conclusion that the 
Word and Spirit of God are both against that opinion, and 
that the only reproof given to the true child of God by the 
Spirit is when he swerves from the path of rectitude and fails 
to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. 
That many honest Christians, believing in higher attainments 
and a second change, called sanctification, have sought for it 
and supposed that they have attained it, we are not disposed 
to question ; and they may have imagined that they felt a 
degree of conviction before, and then the witness of the 
Spirit after the change. But this can easily be accounted for, 
when indeed there was no radical change more than what was 
realized at the time of regeneration. When any one becomes 
deeply anxious for a consideration, whether real or imaginary, 
there is at the time of such anxiety a degree of unhappy 
feeling which may easily be mistaken for conviction; and 
after submission to the will of God, sweet peace and joy 
unspeakable. But this is nothing more than the gloom of 
anxious suspense in the first place, and on its passing by, the 
comfort that follows is nothing more than Christian comfort, 
which had been felt before and on many occasions. But 
who of all God's people that ever professed this second 
change, called sanctification by some, feel certain of a higher 
degree of comfort and peace at such time than was felt in 
their hearts when God, for Christ's sake, forgave their sins 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 265 

and filled them with joy unspeakable and full of glory? The 
comfort was the same in kind, and certainly nothing superior 
in degree ; for young converts give as good evidence of real 
joy as those who profess sanctification and in the same way. 
It will not do to charge such as profess sanctification with 
hypocrisy, for Christians may conclude that the best wine 
was kept back by the governor until the last ; and although 
they had been blessed of God many times before, it is not 
unreasonable to suppose that they might conclude they were 
never so happy before, and take it as evidence of sanctification. 
Others who profess sanctification and feel conviction before 
and comfort after it, such as they never felt in life, are in all 
probability the subjects of true conviction for sin, and the 
subjects of the renovating grace of God for the first time, 
never having been changed before. Hence, when they speak 
of conviction preceding their sanctification, and then of a 
change such as they never realized before and of great 
comfort and peace, we are at no ioss to understand them. 
They were in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity up 
to that time, and knew not what it was to pass from death 
unto life and to feel the love of God shed abroad in their 
hearts. If this second and higher degree of sanctification 
were attainable, and as essentially necessary in order to 
admittance into heaven as the advocates thereof assume, and 
if the regenerate Christian cannot be saved without it, why is 
it that so few of God's dear children ever feel any assurance 
of it aside from that which accompanies the new birth? 
Now, if there be any truth in the doctrine, we are bound to 
think, that as none can enter heaven without it, that it must 
be as easily attained as the first change, otherwise many of 
the regenerated might sink to perdition after having taken 
the first degree, but were not able to take the second. To us 
it appears more reasonable that a Christian would be helped 
of God to take the second degree, than that a vile sinner 
would be to take the first, and that all God's true children 
would be sanctified. We have never known or heard of a 
case of sanctification aside from regeneration, except such as 
hold the theory. No; the great body of Christians never 
profess any such thing in this life, nor is there one in ten or 
18 



266 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 






twenty of those who profess to believe the doctrine, who ever 
in life profess sanctification other than regeneration. How 
can it be that such a thing exists and is of such importance 
as to involve the soul's eternal destiny; yet while thousands 
and millions of God's people cry unto him day and night for 
a complete preparation for heaven, and for every blessing 
which he has for man and has promised to bestow in answer 
to prayer, through his Son Jesus Christ, and yet the Lord God 
withholds that without which the first change is of no avail, 
and the soul, after being born again, is lost and damned 
forever? Now, it will not do to say that such is not the case 
and that multitudes receive that change, and yet make no 
profession of it; for if the change be as manifest as regenera- 
tion, and the Spirit's testimony as satisfactory, and the peace 
as sweet, surely all who feel it would know it with as much 
certainty as they do regeneration, and would be as ready to 
acknowledge it with thanksgiving and praise to God for his 
unspeakable gift. Most evidently if there be a first and 
a second purifying process or change, the Holy Spirit, being 
the author of both, would be as certain to bear testimony of 
the one as of the other change; and those who are the subjects 
of such changes at different times would profess the latter 
with as much assurance as the former, and professions of 
sanctification would be as common as of regeneration 
throughout the Zion of the Lord. The Bible teaches the 
doctrine of the new birth as clear as a sunbeam, and all 
evangelical Christians believe it. But if the Word of God, 
the testimony of the Spirit, or the experience of the spiritual 
family of God, bear any satisfactory testimony in favor of this 
supposed second change, we have never been able to see it, 
and it is called for. If it be a Bible doctrine and as important 
as the change of which Christ speaks to Mcodemus, as the 
advocates thereof assume, surely the proof of the one is as 
explicitly given as of the other. But if this is not found to 
be so, we are at full liberty to reject it as an error. And if 
there is no truth in the doctrine of a second instantaneous 
change equal to regeneration, there is none in that of a 
protracted, progressive change (which amounts in the end to 
the same thing), for the very same reason. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 267 

One strange feature of this system of doctrine remains yet 
to be noticed, which is this: The regenerate are not fit for 
heaven, and the sanctified are not certain of it. Notwith- 
standing sanctification is the highest attainment of a Christian 
in this life, and he who attains it has reached the pinnacle of 
perfection proposed by the grace of God, and there is nothing 
more to be attained but heaven, the place of consummate 
bliss; yet he may fall from that height — yes, from the 
threshhold of heaven, where grace gave its finishing touch — 
into sin and into hell. These same divines, however, will not 
admit that death does any thing for man, either in the way of 
purifying and fitting him for heaven, or in giving him a title 
to the place. ~No; grace must do all. And yet when grace 
has done all that it can and was designed to do, there is yet 
no certainty of heaven — there is no title given and sealed of 
God to heaven and glory. Here we may pause for awhile and 
ask, if free grace alone qualifies for heaven and gives a title to 
the place, when and where does it do all this, if not in this life? 
Here in this world ? If a Christian, when sanctified, is not 
fit for heaven, who is ? And if when fit for it he is not sealed 
an heir, when is he sealed, and where, and for what? If all 
this is not done in this life, and done by grace, we have no 
reason or reliable evidence to conclude that it is ever done, 
and that the Christian will ever stand where he cannot fall, 
and where the winds and storms cannot overthrow him ; for 
grace completes its work here, and not in heaven ; and those 
who have their standing upon Christ in heaven had it first 
upon him in this life, and if there is certainty with those who 
are upon Christ and in him in heaven, they first had it upon 
him in this life. And if in this life and by grace, it must be 
when grace changes the soul into the likeness of God and 
hides the life with Christ in God. " When Christ, who is 
their (our) life, shall appear, then shall they also appear with 
him in glory." "For both he that sanctifieth and they who 
are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed 
to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto 
my brethren ; in the midst of the Church will I sing praise 
unto thee." And again, " I will put my trust in him." And 
again, "Behold I and the children which God hath given 



268 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

me." — Heb. n. 11, 13. God's children are sanctified, and the 
sanctified are one and of one; for which cause Christ calls 
them brethren, and where he is there shall also his brethren, 
who are sanctified in him, be. Consecrate all to him and serve 
in spirit and in truth. 






LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 269 



LECTURE XV.— A SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF 
THE DOCTRINE OF SANCTIFICATION. 



PART II. 



In considering the Christian system, we find it to be 
one harmonious whole, though made up of many distinct 
parts, which have their proper place in the system given 
them by the author of our holy religion. To give any one 
of these doctrines a different position in the system from 
that given by the author, may not destroy its importance 
and vitality, but it must, to say the least of it, cause more or 
less confusion to the mind, and prevent a correct under- 
standing of the whole. These doctrines are not only 
addressed to the mind to give instruction, but to the heart 
as an ample remedy for sin, and to the moral faculty as a 
rule of life. We learn what Cod has done for us that we 
may be saved, and also what we must do in order to be 
saved, as well as the proper estimate placed upon divine 
efficiency and our agency. 

There is progress in our physical growth and strength as 
well as in our intellectual powers ; and there is progress in 
our moral improvement after regeneration, as truly as there 
is progress in the acquisition of knowledge before it. But 
whether this teaches us any thing with certainy as to 
whether regeneration is a perfect work of the Spirit instan- 
taneously wrought in the heart, or is progressively wrought, 
remains to be inquired into. Progress, in our operations 
and developments, proves very little in reference to the 
work of God in us. His work in the heart may be perfect 
at once, while the actions of that heart may be progressive. 

There is progress in the growth and maturity of a child 
until it reaches the measure of a man, but the man is never 



270 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

perfect, unless the child was so, and the man in his maturity 
differs in no essential respect from the child in its infancy. 
Now, the question is, whether there is any essential difference 
between the child and the man. The one is perfect or the 
other never can be so. If this analogy is correct, it must lead 
us to correct conclusions with regard to s an ctifi cation, and 
by legitimate deduction it will be seen that sanctification as 
a growth in grace imparts no purity to the regenerated 
heart, but supplies it with grace to make it fruitful in every 
good word and work. The doctrine of man's free agency, 
though as clearly inculcated in the Scriptures as that of sal- 
vation by divine grace, is as often misplaced and abused as 
any other truth. It has its place and importance in the 
Christian system, and any change of order, as well as detrac- 
tion, subjects the whole system to obscurity and misappre- 
hension. To illustrate : The scheme which speaks of the 
necessity of the atonement contemplates man as a con- 
demned sinner, and the fact of its being addressed to him 
and urged upon his consideration and acceptance, is to be 
taken as good evidence that the provision was made for him, 
as well as that he is to be active in its reception. It, more- 
over, speaks of holiness as the qualification for heaven, and 
of justification by faith in Christ as the appointed path to 
holiness. Now, if holiness of heart were given before justi- 
fication, it must evidently be before faith also, from the 
gospel connection between faith and justification ; and if 
before and without them, the necessity of both appears to 
be superseded as prerequisites to holiness and happiness. 

We are assured that faith is exercised after justification 
as well as before it, but in the one case it is the exercise of a 
regenerated Christian heart, and in the other it is that of an 
enlightened, unrenewed heart, trusting in Christ for salvation. 
It appears strange that any one should contend that the 
heart is radically changed before faith and justification, 
thereby dispensing with both in some high degree. Never- 
theless, it has been assumed, and is -taught in Calvinistic 
creeds, that the heart is changed, at least in part, and a new 
principle wrought within it by the Holy Spirit before faith 
in Christ, and of course before justification. Faith they 



' !>- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 271 

hold to be the gift of God in the same sense that regenera- 
tion is, and to be imparted or wrought in the heart at the 
time it is changed. As justification is by faith and not 
before it, we see that the merits of Christ on this plan are 
applied to the heart on sovereign principles alone, and that 
in a saving way, contrary to the gospel plan. Therefore, 
according to the Calvinistic plan, the heart is first changed 
before justification, and the principle of eternal life is given 
when faith is wrought, and love and other pure affections 
peculiar to the regenerated heart are exercised in the first 
motions of faith. Consequently we find in their creeds that 
they set aside all conditions in the plan of salvation, and 
make faith as truly the effect of renewing grace as eternal 
life is. This is all in keeping with eternal decrees. More- 
over, they teach that both repentance and faith are saving 
graces; i. e., the result of a renovated heart. Faith being 
superinduced in some and not in others, is the only reason 
why some believe while others do not. All believe whose 
hearts are renewed, and none others can. As to a separate 
chapter in their creed on regeneration, w T e find none. The 
chapter on effectual calling appears to fill that place, 
together with that on sanctification and what is incidentally 
brought up in some other chapters. Hence, there is no 
regeneration after justification other than sanctification, 
which they hold to be progressive, and to commence where 
regeneration ends. To hold that there are two changes 
called regeneration, the one before and the other after justi- 
fication by faith, would appear strange indeed, if not absurd. 
The absurdity of regeneration before justification, is not 
more apparent than two regenerations after justification, 
the one called regeneration and the other sanctification, 
both predicated upon the same complete justification by 
virtue of the righteousness of Christ ; the one instantaneous 
and the other progressive, and both designed to purify the 
heart from foul lusts. Would it not be almost as consistent 
to embrace the whole of Calvinism on this point as one 
member of it, and assume that regeneration precedes faith 
and justification ? And being only a change in part, there 
would be greater propriety in a further change after it, 



272 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

though hut one ; for we can hut see that where a thing is 
only changed in part, there may and ought to he a further 
change ; but if the change is thorough, it must appear 
absurd to suppose a further change in the same thing, either 
instantaneously or progressively. Therefore, if the heart 
were thoroughly renewed in regeneration, whether it be 
before or after justification, it cannot be further purified by 
sanctification ; but if the heart is only changed after justifi- 
cation, and that change is thorough at once, then that which 
follows after cannot be another change, but only designed to 
strengthen it. Consequently, I am led to the conclusion 
that in every instance in the Word of God where the heart- 
is said to be changed,, whether by regeneration or sanctifica- 
tion, it must be the same work of the Spirit, and not two 
changes at different times. In conformity with this view, 
when sanctification signifies progress in the same person 
whose heart has been regenerated and made new in Christ, 
it relates not to another renovation, but properly to a growth 
in grace, which consists in godly living — in the fruits of the 
Spirit. 

I have been conducted in coming to the conclusions on 
sanctification which I have expressed here and in former 
lectures, by the Word of God, as I conceive, and feel con- 
tent there to rely without any misgivings. The opposite 
opinion, to which allusion has been made, I look upon as an 
unhappy blunder which Calvinists have made, and which 
has led others into their meshes in some respects, who by no 
means believe with them on all points, but repudiate many 
of their opinions. Apart from other important considera- 
tions, I have no solicitude as to whether regeneration 
precedes or succeeds faith, or whether sanctification is or is 
not progressive. But in view of what the Scriptures teach, 
I have some zeal. The place which has been assigned to 
regeneration in the Calvinistic creed, does, to my mind, 
totally set aside the agency of man in relation to justifica- 
tion aud eternal life, and puts an excuse into the mouths of 
unbelievers in the day of their condemnation. And their 
views on sanctification are of the same web, or I might pass 
them by. If sinners are first changed, it is of no impor- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 273 

tance whether we call it regeneration or not, if such change 
must precede faith, and there can be no faith without it — 
no, not until the heart is changed with its affections, and 
the will determined by almighty power, then there can be 
no responsibility. And to call upon them to believe before 
their hearts be changed and faith be wrought in them, is 
both useless and senseless, and to thunder upon them the 
curses of the law appears cruel. 

In relation to what has been said of the Calvinistic creed, 
I will give some reliable testimony still bearing upon the 
same point ultimately. See Calvinistic Confession, chap, x., on 
Effectual Calling : " All those whom God hath predestinated 
unto life, and those only, he is pleased in his appointed and 
accepted time, effectually to call, by his Word and Spirit, 
out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by 
nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ ; enlightening 
their minds spiritually and savingly, to understand the 
things of God ; taking away their hearts of stone, and 
giving unto them a heart of flesh ; renewing their wills, and 
by his almighty power, determining them to that which is 
good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ, yet so 
as that they come most freely, being made willing by his 
grace." " This call is of God's free and special grace alone, 
not from any thing at all foreseen in man, who is altogether 
passive therein, until being quickened and renewed, by the 
Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to 
embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it." Then in the 
chapter on Justification : " Those whom God effectually 
calleth, he also freely justifieth." And chapter 14: " The 
grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the 
saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in 
their hearts." Now, to make it yet more manifest that 
regeneration is held to take place with effectual calling, and 
before faith and justification, let us turn to the Catechism, 
which is a fair exposition of the creed. See 29, 30 questions 
and answers. 

" How are we made partakers of the redemption pur- 
chased by Christ ? 

" Ans. — We are made partakers of the redemption pur- 



274 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

chased by Christ by the effectual application of it to us by 
his Holy Spirit. 

" How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption pur- 
chased by Christ ? 

" Ans. — The Spirit applieth to us the redemption pur- 
chased by Christ by working faith in us, and thereby uniting 
us to Christ in our effectual calling, or by the effectual 
working of his power." 

The exposition is that the heart is changed in effectual 
calling, by the effectual application of the redemption pur- 
chased by Christ, savingly made by the Holy Spirit, and at 
the same time faith is wrought in the new heart, and it is 
united to Christ. This is all clone before justification by 
faith, and those who are effectually called and united to 
Christ, believe and are justified ; but they are really saved 
before, according to this scheme, and progressive sanctifica- 
tion, as we shall see, has its commencement with regenera- 
tion before faith and justification — with effectual calling. 
Regeneration, it is seen, precedes justification, and sanctiti- 
cation commences there and progresses after it, but all, from 
beginning to end, upon absolute principles, and nothing that 
relates to the salvation of man is suspended upon any condi- 
tion whatever. 

Such is progressive sanctification in the Calvinistic creed. 
It is now manifest that they place progressive sanctification 
at least after justification. They cannot assume that regen- 
eration which precedes justification is a thorough work, or 
there could not be another change in the heart after it. 
Consequently, we who hold that regeneration takes place 
immediately after justification, and is a thorough change, 
cannot consistently hold with Calvinists to such a progressive 
sanctification as changes the heart from remaining lusts, 
after regeneration, unless we admit an apostasy from the 
first change. In conformity with the Calvinistic scheme, 
faith may be called the gift of God, an evangelical grace, 
and set aside as the condition of eternal life, when both are 
secured unconditionally by effectual calling. We have seen 
that there is no place for a separate chapter on regeneration, 
where the thing itself is couched so fully in effectual calling. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 275 

This will give you some idea of the origin and progress of 
Calvinistic notions of regeneration and sanctification. Cum- 
berland Presbyterians never can weave such sentiments into 
their system without great inconsistency and detriment. 
We hold to no change before justification by faith, but a 
full illumination of the soul by the Spirit, then faith in 
Christ and justification on the ground of his merits and 
righteousness ; and then the change of heart, which we 
believe to be instantaneous and thorough. Consequently, 
we do not and cannot consistently with our system of doc- 
trine, which we believe to be taught in the Holy Scriptures, 
hold and teach that sanctification, which follows this 
thorough work of the Spirit, is another change of heart 
commencing where the first ends, and for the purpose of 
purifying a changed heart from foul lusts. With Calvinists, 
regeneration is before justification. We hold it to be after, 
and to be complete as the justifying consideration upon 
which it is founded, and the progress that follows it to be 
the result of a new heart, in which dwells the Spirit of 
Jesus Christ. 

I will here submit an extract from the lectures of Greorge 
Hill, D.D., who is a safe exponent of the Calvinistic creed, 
from which some quotations have been given above. He 
says, " The mind, according to the view of human nature 
upon which the Calvinistic system proceeds, is not disposed 
to accept the remedy, until a change upon the will and the 
affections be produced by the Spirit of G-od." — Page 608. 
And on page 602 : " The call is rendered effectual with 
regard to them, by the removal of that corruption which 
renders it ineffectual with regard to others ; by a change of 
character, which, in respect of the understanding, is such an 
illumination as qualifies them for receiving knowledge ; in 
respect of the will, is an influence so powerful as effectually 
inclines them to follow the inducements that are proposed in 
the Word of God ; and in respect of the whole soul, pro- 
duces a refinement and elevation by which the affections are 
determined to the worthiest objects. This introduction of 
the principles of a new life, unto those who are considered 
as spiritually dead, is called, in conformity to Scripture 



276 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

language, regeneration. It is also called conversion, a 
turning men from that state of mind and those habits of 
life which enter into our view when we speak of human 
nature as corrupt, to those sentiments and habits which 
proceed from the Spirit of God. It is evident that when 
a man is thus converted, and all the obstacles to his 
accepting the invitation in the gospel cease to exist, that the 
remedy there provided, approving itself to his understanding 
and his heart, is cordially embraced." Again, on page 605 : 
" Calvinism adopts as one of its fundamental principles, an 
immediate action of God upon the soul, and in this respect 
it appears to agree with fanaticism. But the distinction is 
this : that immediate action of God, upon which Calvinism 
proceeds, is such an action as restores the whole nature of 
man. This action is conceived to be so entirely the work 
of God as to admit, at the time of its being first exerted, of 
no cooperation from the being whose nature is restored; 
and hence, the Calvinistic system stands in direct opposition 
to the Pelagian and semi-Pelagian doctrine. But the very 
purpose of the action is to give the being who is restored 
the capacity of cooperating in the production of an end." 
Finally, on page 619 : " But we have seen that faith arises 
from that change which the Spirit of God produces, accord- 
ing to the Calvinists, by an efficacious operation." "Now, 
this change is the beginning of sanctification, by introducing 
the principles of a new life," etc. 

All this agrees with the Calvinistic Confession of Faith, 
and certainly with Avhat I have said concerning it. It fully 
teaches, and this exponent says, that there is a direct action 
of God upon the soul of man by which he is regenerated 
and the new life is given, and this action by which the whole 
man is restored and made new in his will and affections, is 
so entirely the work of God as to exclude the agency of the 
subject of it at the time, and admits of no cooperation from 
him until he is regenerated. " This change, we are told, is 
in view of an end." So far, then, from faith in Christ being 
the condition and justification by his righteousness the 
ground of regeneration and eternal life, we see that faith 
itself, according to Calvinism, originates in the new birth, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 277 

and is the gift of God in the same sense that a new heart 
and eternal life are. Therefore, faith in Christ cannot be 
considered the condition of any thing, either before or after 
regeneration, for the design upon which Calvinism proceeds 
is to exclude all cooperation from creatures in receiving 
gospel blessings. Thus we find man is irresponsible as a 
block of marble. He only exerts what God gives and 
determines him to do. " This change, we are told, is the 
beginning of sanctification," which takes place in effectual 
calling ; yes, the beginning of progressive sanctification, for 
they recognize no other. It begins before justification and 
progresses after it, excluding free agency, from beginning to 
end, from the whole plan of salvation. You will see that 
if justification, regeneration, and eternal life were suspended 
upon faith in the sense of a condition, it would not agree 
with unconditional election, and the elect might fail on 
that contingency. 

And again, if faith is the instrument of justification and 
the condition of eternal life, then it must be the condition 
of both regeneration and sanctification, and justification the 
foundation of both. This would leave as little room for 
delay and progress in one case as in the other ; and if one is 
instantaneous, no good reason can be given why the other 
may not be so. If faith is the condition of any thing pro- 
vided and offered in the plan of salvation, it must be the 
condition of every thing that relates to eternal life, and the 
qualification must be given on that condition, and a title to 
eternal life at the time faith fully embraces the Son of God. 
This will appear evident from the fact that faith takes hold 
upon Christ at once, and with him receives all that he has 
done for us, by virtue of which we are freely justified at once. 
And as there is no delay in the act of justification, there is 
none in regeneration and a title to eternal life, which, as we 
shall see in due time, is given by sanctification. Although 
sanctification, as well as regeneration, is given on condition 
of faith, and is founded upon justification, it might be sup- 
posed that while regeneration is immediately given, sanctifi- 
cation might be delayed and progress through life ; yet no 
one will conclude that such regenerated persons can have 



278 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

any title to eternal life nntil they are sanctified, forasmuch 
as that is the sealing act. Moreover, if the believer has the 
promise of sanctification on condition of faith as well as 
eternal life, and the latter is immediately given, it is both 
reasonable and certain the other is, when it is both the 
sealing act and the earnest of the inheritance. But, if it 
were supposed that there is another change of heart in 
addition to regeneration, called sanctification, which imparts 
further purity to the regenerated part, it must either stand 
upon the same foundation with the first change, or without 
a foundation it must hang upon works ; for if justification 
by faith, which secured the first change, did not secure the 
second also, what will ? Nothing, it appears, but a lifetime 
of faith and works ; for if it had been secured by that which 
secured the first change, why was it not given when the first 
was? But if not then, where have we any assurance that 
it ever will be? Certainly we have none. The idea of a 
condition involves that of trial, and implies the liability of a 
failure, and the greatest certainty on a full compliance with 
that condition. 

Those who hold that eternal life is promised and given on 
condition of faith, also hold that holiness of heart is prom- 
ised and given on the same condition, and can no more 
admit of progress in the sanctification of the soul than in 
the title to eternal life, if they hold the doctrine of final 
perseverance. But such as set aside all conditions in the 
gospel of Christ, and resolve every thing into unalterable 
decrees, to be commenced in effectual calling and consum- 
mated by the same irresistable influence, may with equal 
propriety hold the doctrine of progressive sanctification as a 
further change of heart ; but we who believe in faith as the 
condition of both holiness of heart and of life eternal, 
cannot hold progressive sanctification as they do, nor can we 
hold the other extreme with Arminians. 

I will say once more, that I understand sanctification as 
making the heart holy, to be included in what is proposed 
on the condition of faith in Christ, as fully as regeneration 
and eternal life, and to be in this sense identical with it, or 
at least to take place at the same time with regeneration, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 279 

and not to be suspended upon any future contingency. 
Moreover, we find that both the Word of God and our 
Confession of Faith predicate the perseverance of the saints 
and certainty of heaven, upon the merits of Christ applied 
by- the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, and upon 
nothing else. And the title is not given before sanctifica- 
tion, nor is it delayed after it. 1 Peter i. 2 : " Elect accord- 
ing to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through 
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling 
of the blood of Jesus Christ." Eph. I. 13, 14 : " In whom 
also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy 
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, 
until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the 
praise of his glory." It is generally admitted that the elect 
will be saved. If so, we have only to inquire at what time 
and by what action they are constituted the elect of God, in 
order to arrive at a correct conclusion. We have seen that 
they are elected through sanctification of the Spirit, and 
constituted the Lord's sanctified ones. As Paul has said, 
" Ye are sanctified." This is done by the blood of Jesus 
Christ sprinkled upon the heart and conscience : by the 
merits of Christ applied by the Holy Spirit, according to a 
great plan. At this time they are elected unto life and made 
certain of heaven, and the action is called sanctification. 

Again, all that is said in the Word of God of the elect is 
also said of the children of God, for their salvation is spoken 
of with as much certainty as that of the elect. Paul says, 
"If children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with 
Jesus Christ." The children of God and the elect must, 
therefore, be the same character, and are brought into rela- 
tionship with God in the same w r ay and by the same means. 
It will be remembered that the children of God are such by 
faith in his Son. " For ye are all the children of God by 
faith in Jesus Christ." — Gal. in. 26. 'Now, as there is salva- 
tion in no other name, and none in this for responsible 
agents except by faith in him, all who become the children 
of God, whether they are denominated the elect or children 
of God, are certainly constituted such by faith in Christ. 
The elect children of God have everlasting life. As it is 



280 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

said in the Scriptures, " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ 
and thou shalt be saved." " He that believeth on the Son 
of God hath everlasting life." They first repent and believe, 
then they are justified, and being justified, they are sancti- 
fied and sealed heirs of God ; yes, they are his elect by the 
sanctifying act, and as they are constituted such by that act, 
they never can be his elect and be certain of heaven until 
they are sanctified. It must not only be in progress, but it 
must be consummated in the soul. 

If sanctification, which constitutes the elect or children 
of God, were progressive and no one could be certain of 
heaven until he is the elect, then none can feel certain of 
eternal life before he is sanctified, or scripturally hold the 
perseverance of the saints, only at the consummation of 
sanctification ; for they never can be the elect before that 
work is done which gives it being and reality. The whole 
progress must be finished though it should not be done until 
death. If, therefore, we hold that eternal life is only certain 
to the elect, who are constituted such by the sanctification 
of the Spirit, and suspend this on the condition of faith in 
the Son of God, it must be manifest that believers are sanc- 
tified when they are justified, because they have eternal life. 
But if they are not sanctified then, they nave not eternal life 
then, and the condition does not agree with the promise and 
oath of God. I would have you to understand that regen- 
eration and sanctification are as much suspended on the 
condition of faith as eternal life is, and if they are different 
and distinct acts of the Spirit, they must both precede the 
the title to eternal life. As I have, therefore, proven that 
we are sealed heirs to eternal life by sanctification, if this 
were progressive, then our certainty of heaven and title to 
eternal life must also be progressive, and the condition 
progressive even after justification; and as there is no 
certainty upon this hypothesis of sanctification until death, 
the perseverance of the saints cannot be true, but such 
justified persons are liable at any time to apostatize during 
this progress, until they are sanctified and constituted the 
elect of God. 

Holding, as we do, the doctrine of personal election and 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 281 

certainty of heaven on the condition of faith in Christ, if 
believers are not sanctified and elected to everlasting life 
when they are justified, it must he because the condition of 
eternal life differs from justifying faith, and is progressive in 
relation to one thing promised, while it is instantaneous in 
reference to another thing. Whenever we give up instanta- 
neous sanctification and hold it to be progressive, we give 
up the perseverance of the saints, and, with the Arminiansi 
suspend a title to eternal life and certainty of heaven upon 
a lifetime of faith and good works. For, as I have shown, 
w T e cannot claim certainty for the saints before their election, 
which is by the act of sanctification; but if we reject the 
Arminian scheme and still hold the doctrine of perse- 
verance, and with Calvinists hold progressive sanctification, 
then with them we are compelled to dispense with all condi- 
tions in the plan of salvation, and embrace the scheme of 
unconditional election, whether we do that of reprobation 
or not. For I have before shown that while they hold the 
doctrine of progressive sanctification as a renewing work 
of the Spirit in the heart, they evidently dispense with all 
conditions in the plan of salvation, as truly in relation to 
regeneration and sanctification as in reference to eternal life, 
and assume that faith, which we hold to be the condition of 
sanctification and eternal life, is the gift of God in the same 
sense that life is, and place all upon the same unconditional 
basis. In short, they suspend nothing that relates to the 
salvation of man upon any known condition whatever. We, 
however, differ in some respects from the extremes of Cal- 
vinism and Arminianism, and claim the medium system 
between the two. Progressive sanctification, in some sense, 
is incorporated in both those extremes, while one holds 
conditional and the other unconditional salvation. We 
believe that salvation is conditional, and that personal elec- 
tion takes effect in this life, if ever ; consequently, as it takes 
place in this life and on the condition of faith in Christ, 
and as the elective sealing act of the Spirit is denominated 
sanctification, it must take place in immediate connection 
with justification by faith, if it ever does; and the elect 
must be both regenerated and sanctified as soon as they are 
19 



282 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

justified. Hence, if regeneration and sanctification be dif- 
ferent acts of the Spirit, as some contend, they certainly 
both take place on the same condition and at the same time, 
for election unto life does not take place until they are both 
consummated, and evidently believers in Christ are sealed 
heirs of God by the latter. 

I will here remark that my argument is in no way affected 
should it even be admitted that regeneration and sanctifica- 
tion are different acts of the Spirit, for on that admission it 
is still proven that they both take place before any one is 
constituted a child of God ; and if they be different acts, 
they are so near the same time as to be in immediate connec- 
tion with justification by faith. 

The doctrine for which I have contended in my former 
lectures and now advocate, is a thorough change of heart 
and a sealed title to eternal life on the condition of faith in 
Christ, and in immediate connection with justification. It 
is the medium system. Nothing can be plainer than that we 
are constituted children of God by being born of the Spirit, 
which I understand to be regeneration ; and if children, 
then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Here is 
certainty of heaven by regeneration. And now, where is 
there any ground for a reasonable controversy as to whether 
sanctification is identical with regeneration or not, when the 
very same thing is said in the Bible to be consummated by 
sanctification of the Spirit, and in immediate connection 
with justification? If they are not the same act, it amounts 
to the same thing as if they were. I wish you to see that 
if you admit sanctification to be progressive as a purif}dng 
work in the heart, that you give up the perseverance of the 
saints, for the very reason that we are personally elected 
unto life by sanctification, and this is not done until that 
work is consummated. 

Sanctification, therefore, which constitutes the elect on 
condition of faith in the Son of God, is instantaneous like 
regeneration, whether it is identical with it or not. I do not 
object by any means to Christian progress, not that such 
progress be denominated sanctification, when that progress 
is fairly explained and not brought in contact with the 






LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 283 

Word of God. But I have raised my objection to the 
opinion that regeneration is not a thorough change of heart, 
and that sanctification is another change and purifies the 
same heart more and more through life, contrary both to 
the teachings of the Bible aud consistency; for who, upon 
strict observation, has not witnessed at least the apparent 
contradictions in those who either deny that regeneration is 
a thorough change of heart or admit that it is, and then 
teach that there are yet many foul lusts in it to be purged 
out by. sanctification ? If I must believe with some that 
sanctification is a purifying work of the Spirit in the regen- 
erated heart, by which it is further changed, then I am 
compelled to conclude that it was not thoroughly changed 
at first, or that it apostatized in some degree and became 
polluted afterwards. I, therefore, hold the medium system 
as taught in the Bible, i. e., that sanctification in the heart is 
instantaneous and in immediate connection with .justifica- 
tion by faith in Christ, and that such persons are at once 
constituted heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. And 
in the next place, what is denominated progressive sanctifica- 
tion is the fruits of its flowing out of a sanctified heart in 
which dwells the spirit of adoption — the spirit of Jesus 
Christ. It is the fruit of it and not the thing itself. By 
reference to my former lectures on this question, it will be 
seen that all my arguments concentrate in these points, viz., 
certainty of heaven on condition of faith in Christ, a thorough 
change of heart at the time by the sanctifying power of the 
Spirit, which is called in the Word both regeneration and 
sanctification. Having taken the position that the heart is 
thoroughly renewed while the flesh remains unrenewed, I 
have maintained that as such persons are represented in the 
Word of God as sometimes guilty of improprieties and 
sins, that the exciting cause of such sins is not in that part 
which was regenerated and born of God, but in the unregen- 
erated part — in the flesh. After having sustained my position 
from the Word of God, it was in no way obligatory on me to 
show how it is that the flesh acts upon the soul, which is 
born of God, so as to result in sin, and although I may have 
failed to clear up the point, still I claim to have fully sus- 



284 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

tamed the position from tlie Scriptures, that the soul is 
thoroughly changed when born of the Spirit, and that the 
body is not and will undergo no radical change until the 
resurrection. A sanctified heart is best known to the world 
by the fruits that flow out of it through life, in keeping the 
flesh under and bringing it into subjection. This we are 
commanded to do lest we should be cast away, as Paul 
expresses it, or, as our Saviour says, " be led into temptation." 
We must all agree that there is no love of sin in a child of 
God. He hates it and, if separated from the body when 
born of the Spirit, he would never sin. If this is true, it 
must be admitted that the exciting cause of improprieties in 
a Christian is in his flesh, and through that medium, as I 
have said. 

The position I have taken is not that the body sins or can 
sin apart from the soul, but that the soul, born of the Spirit, 
would not and does not sin uninfluenced and apart from the 
flesh. See the foregoing lectures on this subject. 

I will now sli^w that my leading position is sustained by 
our Confession of Faith, whatever may be the shades of 
discrepancy in relation to some minor points. I quote from 
the chapter on perseverance (chap, xvn) : " They whom God 
Lath justified and sanctified, he will also glorify; consequently 
the truly regenerated soul will never totally nor finally fall 
away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere 
therein to the end, and be eternally saved." Here it will be 
seen that our Confession of Faith speaks of the certainty of 
glorification only in reference to such as are both justified and 
sanctified. These must both be complete before there is any 
certainty of heaven claimed in the case* Then in the progress 
of the argument it is said, " Consequently the truly regen- 
erated soul will never totally nor finally fall away from the 
state of grace." Here the same certainty of heaven is claimed 
for the truly regenerate, showing that regeneration and 
sanctification as a purifying work of the Spirit are one and 
the same. Should any one contend that they are not the 
same, this does not in the slightest degree effect my position, 
for the Confession speaks of both in immediate connection 
with justification and the perseverance of the saints, and that 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 285 

these are all consummated before any Christian is sealed an 
heir of God. Certainly our creed teaches that sealing and 
certainty of glory take place in immediate connection with 
justification, and if so, it certainly does teach that regeneration 
and sanctification both precede certainty of glorification. 
This is very near a demonstration that the Confession 
teaches regeneration and sanctification to be instantaneous and 
identically the same work of the Spirit. But it is sufficient 
for my purpose to show from the Bible and our Confession 
of Faith that there is at least one sanctification which is 
instantaneous like regeneration connected with justification 
by faith, which constitutes believers at once the elect children 
of God. Suppose our Confession were to teach that sanctifi- 
tion is progressive through life or were so interpreted, it must 
at once appear that it teaches that this progressive work is 
something different from that which preceded, and w T as itself 
the sealing-act of glorification, otherwise it must contradict 
itself, or the interpretation of it must be erroneous. Sanctifica- 
tion or sanctified, like regeneration and regenerated, signifies 
a thing done and not a thing in progress. Progressive 
sanctification, it appears to me, is not the sanctification which 
seals us heirs of God. If it were, I cannot conceive how we 
can feel certain of heaven until the progress ends, as it would 
not be sanctification before. I will here state that what some 
take to be progressive sanctification, I understand to be the 
fruits of it flowing out of a sanctified heart in which dwells 
the spirit of Jesus Christ, as has been before remarked, and 
not the thing itself. The difference is as that of the tree and 
the fruit it bears. The tree is one thing and the fruit is 
another, but the fruit is good because the tree is so. Sanc- 
tification is one thing and the fruit of it is another. Sanctifica- 
tion is instantaneous, but the fruit of it is progressive through 
life, and for aught I can tell, it may be so forever in some 
respects. Paul says (1 Thess. iv. 3-5) : " This is the will of 
God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from 
fornication : that every one of you should know how to 
possess his vessel in sanctification and honor ; not in the lust 
of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God." ? 
This consists in a sanctified life, in living after the Spirit, in 



286 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

keeping the body under and subduing all irregular and 
impure desires of the flesh, which is not the case with those 
who know not God and have not the spirit of Jesus Christ: 
" keep their vessels in sanctincation and honor," as sanctified 
persons ought to do. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 287 



LECTURE XVI.— PERSEVERANCE OF THE 

SAINTS. 



PART I. 



The perseverance of the saints is their continuance in a 
state of grace and their final entrance into a state of glory. 
It is maintained by its advocates that all those who truly 
believe in Christ, are justified, regenerated, adopted, and 
constituted children of God, will not so far fall away as to 
undo what God has graciously done, and be lost; but that 
they will be kept by the power of God through faith unto 
salvation. The doctrine is said to depend for its certainty on 
the plan of salvation, which includes not onl} 7 all the necessary 
grace to bring sinners into favor with God and union with his 
Son Jesus Christ; but also the grace so indispensably 
necessary to complete what grace has begun. As Paul has 
said, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath 
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of 
Jesus Christ."— Phil. 1. 6. 

2. If it could be shown that our federal head in his first 
estate was placed upon the new covenant scheme, and there 
fell and became liable to eternal pains, it would be useless to 
contend that others standing on the same platform might not 
fall also. Indeed it would be reasonable to suppose that they 
would be as much more likely to fall as they are less perfect 
than he was when he came from the hand of his Creator. 
But this is not assumed by any one with whom we have any 
controversy. It is admitted that Adam was under a scheme 
of works, and his standing and final confirmation depended 
on works, or obedience to the law. Hence, it would be fair 
to say he was under the law, and not under grace. The 
difference between law and grace is wide : they are opposite 






288 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

extremes, and the conditions of those who are under grace 
are as different and as wide apart as the two dispensations. 
Nothing, therefore, can be drawn from Adam's failure and 
urged against the certainty of such as have their standing on 
the new covenant. If this covenant did not provide more 
helps and extend more aid than the first, who of all the race 
could be saved ? The remedial scheme was certainly designed 
to save, and so arranged and fitted up as to meet the case as 
the Lord knew it to be. It placed the race iu a salvable state, 
secured divine influence to all, grace to renew all who believe 
in Christ, and certainly to make good and secure all that is 
promised in the gospel. The ultimate design and achievement 
of the plan of grace, therefore, is to impart eternal life to 
believers in Christ. All may be summed up in this, when 
this is completed and the soul is brought into the glory of 
heaven, the gospel has fulfilled its mission on earth. This 
kind of life is never possessed in part only — it is not the thing 
wheu only begun — it must be complete, at least in duration 
and certainty, or it is not the life everlasting. And it may be 
confidently affirmed, that no one in possession of this life has 
ever lost it, or ever will. Christians who live and sutler in 
prospect of future glory and never-failing permanency, must, 
f not disappointed, be confirmed and made sure of their 
anticipations at some time, either in this world or that which 
is to come. Moreover, whenever this occurs, it will be in 
perfect conformity with the scheme of free grace and the 
agency of man — neither will be set aside. None who consist- 
ently believe in future blessedness and glory, would admit for 
a moment that saints will ever apostatise and fall from heaven. 
They are made safe at some time, otherwise all heaven might 
be depopulated in the roll of eternal years. But no contro- 
versy is to be apprehended here — all are agreed that there 
will be safety there. And it may be stated, as heretofore, 
that all Christians who enter into that happy state will be 
confirmed at some time in accordance with free agency and 
free grace. This much being agreed to and settled, it only 
remains for us to fix the time when this is done. 

3. There will perhaps be some controversy as to the time 
when believers are confirmed and made certain of heaven. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 289 

Some may contend that it takes place at death, or at the 
entrance of heaven; others at some point of Christian perfec- 
tion between regeneration and death, and still a third class 
may fix the time at the instant of regeneration. As this 
matter can only be safely and fairly settled by an appeal to 
the Scriptures of divine truth, it should be at once brought to 
that tribunal. I shall, therefore, take the position that eternal 
life is imparted on condition of faith in Christ, and the title 
is confirmed and sealed at the time and by the regenerating 
act of the Holy Spirit. A question of such moment ought 
not to rest on the opinions of men, however wise and good : 
though these should have some respect shown them, the proof 
must be had from the infallible Word of God to settle the 
question. 1. The time of confirmation and the condition on 
which it is done. In relation to this question, Paul says, "In 
whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of truth, 
the gospel of your salvation : in whom also after that ye 
believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, 
w T hich is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption 
of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory." — 
Eph. 1. 13, 14. This inspired declaration, which is corroborated 
by other passages of Scripture, fixes the time of confirmation 
after faith and before death ; and while it does not positively 
state that it is immediately done in connection with faith, yet 
this is the only fair conclusion which can be drawn. For they 
were told that they were sealed to an inheritance after they 
believed, and that the Holy Spirit had given them an earnest 
of it, an assurance, a pledge of all which had been promised, 
that it should be fulfilled. 2. When any one is thus sealed to 
life eternal and has the earnest of the Spirit in his heart, at 
whatever time this may be, no cautious Christian will question 
his certainty of heaven ; for this much is testified by the 
Spirit, and all ground of doubt is removed. Having proven 
that sealing takes place in connection with faith in Christ as 
the condition, additional proof may be given to establish the 
certainty of heaven in all such cases. " Who hath also sealed 
us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts," "And 
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto 
the day of redemption."— 2nd Cor. i. 22; Eph. iv. 30. This 



290 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

sealing is done during life, and continues not only until death, 
but it gives to the sealed an abundant entrance into glory, 
into the full possession of the purchased inheritance. Peter 
says, in further confirmation of this fact, " Elect according to 
the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification 
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of 
Jesus Christ: grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed 
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, 
according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto 
a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by 
the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be 
revealed in the last time." — 1 Peter i. 2, 3, 4, 5. The elect 
and sealed are the same character, and correspond with such 
as are begotten again by the Spirit through the death -and 
resurrection of Jesus Christ. To be begotten again is only 
another word for the new birth, new creation, or regeneration, 
which imparts a lively hope of future bliss to the heart. And 
of such it is said, they have an inheritance reserved for them 
in heaven, which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth 
not away. To make this inheritance safe and certain to them, 
they are kept by the power of God through faith unto 
salvation, and brought to the full possession and enjoyment 
of this reserved treasure — "it is ready for them, and fadeth 
not away." The time of confirmation by the Spirit is the 
moment of regeneration, according to the Word of God, if 
ever; for I find no other time mentioned. And the certainty 
is unquestionable, as the Word and Spirit of God both testify 
to the same facts. 

4. It has been assumed as true, that no one possessed of 
eternal life through Jesus Christ has ever been known to 
loose it. The very idea is absurd and irreconcilable with the 
thing itself. If it could be lost, it could not be eternal; for 
our teachings in the Bible in relation to eternal life is, that it 
never ends; and if it should end with me, or I should lose 
it, the most that could be said in the case would be, that I 
had it in prospect, but never had it in my heart nor a title to 
it sealed by the Spirit. In a word, life which ends or fails, is 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 291 

not eternal. Here it may be asked, what kind of life does 
the gospel of Christ propose to all who believe in him? ISTo 
other than everlasting life, and this life is said to be in him — 
he is the foundation of it, and it never dies. He says to 
believers, " Because I live, ye shall live also." His life and 
theirs appear to be identified, and the certainty of theirs 
depends upon the certainty of his. "And this is the record, 
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his 
Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not 
the Son of God hath not life."— 1st John v. 11, 12. All who 
regard the Scriptures to be of divine authority, must agree 
that the life spoken of here is true and eternal, and whenever 
it has its indwelling in the soul and the earnest of the Spirit 
is given, there will be no end — no uncertainty. Here we 
maintain again, that Christ becomes the believer's life before 
death, even at the time he receives him by faith. "He that 
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." " Verily, verily? 
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." — 
John in. 36; vi. 47. The gospel promises eternal life on 
condition of faith in the Son of God, as we have seen, and 
this promise is fully secured at the time. It is not said to the 
Christian, that he shall have eternal life if he continues to 
believe; but it is affirmed that he has it now — he has Christ 
in him as truly as he has passed from death unto life. This 
is the doctrine which the Spirit revealed to Paul, when he 
said, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in 
God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall 
ye also appear with him in glory." — Col. in. 3, 4. Our 
attention here is specially invited, first, to the death which 
takes place in regeneration — the old man is crucified and all 
is new; and, second, that Christ enters into this new heart 
and abides there; and, third, he is the life and soul which is 
hid with him in God; and, fourth, all such as have this life 
in God, shall appear with the Son in glory; and, fifth, the 
glorified state of the believer is as certain as that of the 
Saviour — "he shall appear with him in gloiw." 

5. Christ, and all he has done for the salvation of our race, 
is secured with unerring certainty whenever justification by 
faith takes place. It cannot be supposed that any one of the 



292 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

race can be justified before God with less than all the remedial 
merit of Jesus Christ — this is all held out in the plan for the 
acceptance of faith. First, There is grace to enlighten ; 
second, grace to justify; third, grace to renovate the heart 
and to impart to it eternal life ; and, fourth, grace to secure a 
life of devotion to God and to bring the Christian to glory — 
all this is embodied in Christ and such as receive the Son by 
faith and have him, have all this. Regeneration establishes 
the reality of justification, and justification the reality of 
faith — that it is evangelical and saving — such as the plan 
contemplated. We know that the Spirit regenerates the 
justified, and that they have believed in the truest sense as 
required in the gospel, or God would not have justified them 
for the sake of his Son. Therefore, we contend that as 
regenerated persons are sealed to the day of redemption and 
will finally be saved, the continuance of their faith and godly 
living as Christians does not depend on good works as condi- 
tions on which God imparts grace to secure good fruits and a 
life of active perseverance : but that all the grace of the new 
covenant to secure such fruits, were as fully secured as eternal 
life, and on the very same condition, and at the same time of 
justification and the entrance of Christ into the new heart. 
The doctrine is not that the Spirit, after regenerating the 
heart, then leaves such to work their way to heaven, and on 
condition of their good w T orks imparts more grace to enable 
them still to continue : but this very grace and its constant 
supplies was as fully secured as the title to glory, and on the 
same condition. Christ was received with all his benefits 
and lives in the heart, which is the earnest of heaven and the 
pledge of good fruits in future life. The true and only 
reason why a child of God will be saved finally and forever, 
and will also be fruitful in lite is, that Christ is his life, and 
he dwells in the heart, as has been proven, and will certainly 
perform all he promised. He is the fountain of life in the 
soul, rising up and spreading out, and the faith of the heart, 
which instrumentally brought him into it, is kept lively and 
active, for it lives upon the Son of God and abides. Paul 
says : "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live: yet 
not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 293 

in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved 
me, and gave himself for me." — Gal. n. 20. This kind of 
faith never fails, because it took fast hold on the Son of God, 
and brought him into saving union with the soul, where he 
continually abides and lives, and faith continually lives upon 
him, and of course, will never fail. 

6. As God has appointed that faith should be the condition 
of salvation, not barely begun and then left to other 
contingencies, but full and complete, it must be as certain as 
immutable truth, that whatever he has pledged on that 
condition he will perform. That he has promised any thing 
less than eternal life to such as believed in his Son, will not be 
assumed by any one whose mind is stored with sacred truth. 
The promise is, " That whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish ; but have eternal life." — John in. 15. The 
fulfilment of this promise is not suspended on a lifetime of 
faith and good works, as some have supposed, but is fulfilled 
at once, as has been shown. "He that believeth on the Son 
hath everlasting life." Before he believes, he has the 
promise of it, and whenever he does believe, he has the 
living reality — everlasting life. It may well be supposed 
that no little confusion and tangle have been introduced by 
divines, in first placing before the mind a condition without 
considering what it is, and how much is pledged on compli- 
ance with it. At times it is assumed that a lifetime of faith, 
and nothing short of that, will suffice to believe savingly in 
Christ, and no one has any earnest of heaven until he enters, 
or near that time. Here it must be manifest that faith as the 
instrument of justification is not scripturally considered; for 
it is not and cannot be faith in Christ in any true sense, 
until it leads to justification, and nothing short of the Son 
of God, whole and entire, with all his merits and saving grace, 
will do this, or avail the sinner one particle in the way of 
salvation. Christ is not, so to speak, divided and held out in 
part, but the undivided Saviour is presented and held out as 
the object of faith, with all he is and has for our salvation, 
and faith must take all or none. Hence, our conclusion is 
safely reached, that as eternal life is promised on condition 
of faith in Jesus Christ, and whosoever believeth in him has 



294 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

it, there can be no ground to doubt or controvert about it; 
for it is just as much of an established fact, as that there is 
eternal life in the Son of God, who is said in the Scriptures 
to be our life; that all those who receive him, shall not 
perish, for they have everlasting life. This fact is fully- 
settled by the "Word of God, and admits of no controversy. 
The only possible ground of dispute would be as to whether 
we have truly believed in the Son of God. And next, 
whether or not there is any certainty of everlasting life in 
him. The latter cannot be questioned, and the former has 
been proven. There is eternal life in Christ for true believers, 
according to the Scriptures, and this is tendered on condition 
of faith, saving faith in Christ, as has been said. But how 
are we to know when it is saving? The answer is plain. 
Whenever we have savingly believed in Christ, we are 
justified, and have peace with God through him. " There- 
fore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." — Rom. v. 1. Being in this 
happy condition, we have the testimony of the Spirit in us. 
" The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are 
the children of God." — Rom. viii. 16. By this witness we 
know that we are the children of God. He testifies this 
cheering truth to our spirit, and gives us the earnest of our 
inheritance reserved in heaven, " while we are kept by the 
power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be 
revealed in the last time." 

7. There is a beauty and force in the language of the 
Bible in relation to the children of God, which should not 
be overlooked in this investigation. It is such as to warrant 
the belief that he regards the relationship and all their 
interests with more tenderness than could possibly be felt by 
all earthly fathers. Concerning the tenderness of his watch 
care, and the certainty of his children's inheritance, there can 
be no doubt. This is all certain. And we have only to 
realize that we are the children of God, in order to feel 
certain of the heavenly inheritance. If the one can be 
known, so can the other. As it has already been shown that 
our relationship to God as his children, is to be known by 
the witness of the Spirit in our hearts, it will be unnecessary 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 295 

to repeat it here, other than to show the certainty of the 
children's inheritance. Paul says: "For ye are all the 
children of God by faith, in Christ Jesus." Again : " Ye 
have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba 
Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, 
that we are the children of God : and if children, then heirs; 
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ: if so be that we 
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." — 
Gal. in. 26; Rom. vm. 15, 16, 17. No doubt should be 
entertained as to whether the children of God can know 
themselves to be such, for the design of the Spirit's testimony 
in us is that we may feel and know ; and surely when God 
undertakes to establish a fact, he can and will do it. And 
we find in our hearts the spirit of adoption, claiming God as 
our Father — we are said to feel this in us. In this is fulfilled 
the sayings of the Spirit in another place. "Beloved, now 
are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall 
be like him; for we shall see him as he is." — 1 John in. 2 # 
The sons of God are to appear with Christ when he appears 
and be like him; "for they shall see him as he is" when he 
comes in his glory. Christ being the Son of God, is his heir. 
He is heir of all things, and his inheritance is by no means 
hung upon any contingencies whatever. He has inherited 
and entered into his glory. Here, then, is to be seen the 
beauty and force of inspiration in establishing the certainty 
of the Christian's inheritance. They are children of God by 
faith in Christ, and the Spirit bears witness to the truth of 
this. They are adopted and have the spirit of children, and 
if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with 
Jesus Christ. Here the whole argument and all the proof 
settles down on one single point, which is the inheritance of 
the Son of God. If this is certain, then is there equal 
certainty with his joint heirs, as the latter depends on the 
former. From the very frame-work of this scripture, we are 
brought to the unwavering conclusion that if there is no 
certainty in relation to the heirship and inheritance of our 
Saviour, there can be none in the case of his co-heirs, who, by 
becoming children of God, are joint inheritors with himself. 






296 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

When our attention is fully turned to the Word of God and 
the plan of salvation, in its adaptation to the wants of our 
race, we see most clearly that it was the design of the Lord 
to save us, and that he certainly will, if we are willing, and 
consent with the whole heart to accept his Son. For in him 
there is life, and all the grace and help necessary to perfect 
the work, and bring the confiding soul into the glory of 
heaven, where Jesus is, to. behold him as he is and dwell 
forever with him. 

8. There is a character spoken of in the New Testament 
which, as it appears, cannot fall away and be lost — the elect. 
As no Bible Christian will presume to think or sa} 7 that the 
elect ever have or ever will fail of heaven, it will onh r be 
requisite for us to ascertain, if we can, who this elect 
character is. This done, the remaining task will be light. 
That persons and nations, as Cyrus and the Jews, were 
chosen for certain purposes has little or nothing to do with 
the matter now under consideration. It will be sufficient for 
our present purpose to set forth that this term has been 
given by our Saviour to a peculiar character, which makes 
it most notorious. From all that appears in relation to elect 
persons, they are not liable to fall away or to be severed 
from Christ, but are certain of heaven. Our Lord, speaking 
of false teachers and deceivers, says, "That, if it were 
possible, they shall deceive the very elect." — Matt. xxiv. 24. 
The impossibility of deception in this case is so clear as to 
supersede further comment. Here it will be necessary to 
identify this character and show who the elect are, and how 
they are elected and when. It is claimed that they are 
Christians, having the Spirit of Christ, regenerated and 
adopted persons, who, by faith in the Son of God, were 
justified and sealed to the day of redemption. "Who shall 
lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that 
justifieth: who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that 
died ; yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the 
right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." — 
Rom. viii. 33, 34. God, as we see, justified this elect charac- 
ter on the broad and firm basis of the atonement of Christ, 
and it appears that he will never reverse it, and no other 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 297 

being in the universe has the right or power to do it. Ln 
speaking of this character, the apostle colors his words with 
a shade of challenge when he says, " Who shall lay any- 
thing to the charge of God's elect?" and then gives as the 
ground of the foregoing confidence, that God was the 
justifier and his Son the saviour, and it would stand forever. 
Justification, as we have seen, is by faith in Christ, and by it 
we become the children of God — adopted children. And it 
children, then elect heirs of God and joint heirs with his 
Son Jesus Christ. Hence, it is said, " Who shall separate 
us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or 
persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril, or sword?" 
" Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors 
through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither 
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, 
nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the 
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." — Rom.vni. 
35, 37-39. Paul includes himself with the elect children of 
God, when he says, " Who shall separate us from the love 
of God?" In the above enumeration the writer leaves out 
nothing; no being, thing, or power in the universe of which 
we have any conception, none but God, whom he has already 
shown will not separate his children, whom he has justified 
and joined to himself, from his love aud their pledged 
inheritance. None of all the. enumeration, nor all united, 
can sever these elect ones from Jesus Christ, and God will 
not do it. Aud surely no considerate Christian man would 
be so hasty as to suppose that after all that has been said by 
the voice of inspiration, there is yet one exception — that the 
child of God himself can tear himself from the Lord. 
Indeed, if Paul had so thought and had only named that 
exception, it would do to urge it as an exception; but when 
every thing and being has been collected, and ourselves of 
the number, it would seem to be rather a meager criticism 
of the Word of God than a fair and candid search after 
truth, to invent such an exception. Nothing could more 
fully evince the weakness of a cause than the use of such 
means. That Paul believed the impossibility of a Christian's 
20 



298 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

fall or severance from God by any and all means and 
agencies it seems unreasonable to doubt. The Son of God, 
when speaking of this same character, says, " My sheep 
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and 
I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, 
neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, 
which gave them me, is greater than all; and none is able 
to pluck them out of my Father's hand." — John x. 27-29. 
This character heard the Saviour's voice and followed him, 
and to them he gave eternal life, and he says, "They shall 
never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand, 
nor out of my Father's hand." These almighty hands take 
hold of such as commit the keeping of their souls to them, 
and will never let them go nor suffer them to be torn away. 
They have eternal life given them by the Son of God and 
shall never perish. I could not find it in my heart to ask 
from the Giver of all good stronger language and more 
incontrovertible proof of the Christian's perseverance and 
assurance of future glory than has been abundantly given. 
There is no lack. 

9. It will be in place here to consider the indwelling seed 
of the Lord's adopted children. "Whoever is born of God 
doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him : and he 
cannot sin, because he is born of God." — 1 John in. 9. This 
seed is not only a guarantee to the Christian for eternal life 
and future glory, but also of fruitful ness and a consistent 
life. These are both secured by this living seed, for it is not 
only said that "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not, but 
also, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known 
him." — 1 John in. 6. Wilful, known, and intentional sin 
is unequivocal proof that such have not been born again ; 
have not known the Lord, and have not this seed in them. 
For it may not be supposed that it was once possessed but 
has been rooted out, for it abideth in them, and its continu- 
ance is given here as full proof that they had known the 
Lord. The apostle does not say they had once known the 
Lord and possessed this seed but it had perished, but he says 
expressly that it will abide in all who have been born again, 
and that they cannot, will not sin. In all cases where sin is 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 299 

committed of choice and with intention, knowing it to be 
sin, there is no seed and never has been. Such persons have 
not known the Lord, as his Word declares. The well- 
adapted plan of recovery was fully arranged not only to 
secure to all true believers in the Son of God the promised 
inheritance in heaven, but also to implant within them the 
abiding life-principle to secure a life corresponding with 
itself — a life of pleasurable obedience to God. And the 
latter is as much an element of the doctrine of scriptural 
perseverance as the former. No one has ever held the 
doctrine of perseverance in conformity with the Word of 
God, who simply held that believers in Christ are regenerated, 
adopted, and sealed heirs of God, and were not at the same 
time, and on the very same condition, made equally as 
certain of the principle in them which would be certain to 
live right, and all the grace necessary for its consummation. 
In truth, this seed and its maintenance in the heart by the 
guaranteed and certain supplies of divine grace from God is 
the main ground of the saint's perseverance. It is not a 
lifeless affair, but a living reality in heart and life. There 
is a principle in the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ which 
sustains the saints in heaven and prevents their fall into 
perdition, for they are not chained there, but serve God 
willingly and with delight, and will continue so to do forever. 
That principle is the implantation of grace, and it was done 
here and not in heaven, and it was the very same in their 
hearts while on earth as it is now in heaven. It is Jesus 
Christ in them now and it was Jesus Christ in them here, 
their abiding seed and everlasting life. They had it here 
and they have it there. And now, as to the time when it 
began. As has been stated already, it was implanted by the 
Spirit in regeneration, when they were born again. " Who- 
soever is born of God, doth not commit sin (the sin unto 
death): for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin; 
because he is born of God." Here we have the time, the 
fact, and the reason clearly stated. The time of confirma- 
tion is the birth-time, the fact is certainty of heaven, and 
the reason why they are certain of glory is that they have 
been horn of the Spirit, and God intended to save them 



300 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

when he did the work, as he had promised ; consequently 
he sealed them to the day of redemption, and gave them the 
Spirit in their hearts as an abiding earnest of their inherit- 
ance. Those who will certainly persevere have this seed in 
them, which is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He 
is their life and this is hid with htm in God, and when he 
shall appear they shall appear with him in glory. Christ is 
the well of living water, the fountain of life in them spring- 
ing up into endless life and glory. The Christian's life is 
not left exposed, as some have supposed ; it is hid, hid in God, 
"hid with Christ in God." Therefore his life is in God 
emphatically, as his "Word declares. Why there? why hid 
there? Manifestly for the purpose of safe-keeping, to 
prevent it being plucked away. "None is able to pluck 
them out of my Father's hand, for he is stronger than all." 
See, then the great force in the sayings of Paul : " For ye 
are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God: when 
Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall }^e also appear 
with him in glory." In the final wind-up of this grand 
scheme of salvation by grace, when the Lord Almighty shall 
judge the world, small and great standing before him, it will 
not be seen that one of all the race, who had been born of 
God, and whose life w T as hid with Christ in him, will fail of 
heaven. They will all appear in glory, if the Divine Word 
is reliable. And although pretenders, and many who had 
lamps of profession, may say, "Lord, Lord, have we not 
prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out 
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" th'e 
Lord will pronounce it all false, and declare he " never knew 
them : depart from me, ye that work iniquity." But the 
saints will all appear with him in glory. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 301 



LECTURE XVI.— PERSEVERANCE OF THE 

SAINTS. 



PART II. 



1. It was the design of the previous lecture to present the 
doctrine of perseverance in its direct and positive form ; in 
this, some notice will be taken of objections to the doctrine, 
and the scriptures which are thought to favor the opinions of 
those who hold that Christians may and often do fall away 
and are lost. 

The first objection is founded upon the assumed incon- 
sistency and impossibility of an attempt to sustain the 
perseverance of the saints on any other ground than that 
held by Calvinists. This objection comes up from two very 
wide extremes — Calvinists on one side, and Arminians on the 
other. The former contend that it has no foundation apart 
from eternal decrees and fore-ordination. The latter, while 
they reject eternal decrees and unconditional election, do, at 
the same time, agree that such is the only plausible ground 
on which to advocate the doctrine of perseverance. Both 
condemn in loud tones the doctrine of perseverance, when 
associated with general atonement and a possible salvation 
for the entire race. And more especially, when there is any 
condition in the case whatever, and the certainty of eternal 
life is suspended on a contingency, such as faith in Christ. 
We, however, reject the stern features of Calvinism, and 
equally turn away from some features of the Arminian 
scheme. And while we plant ourselves on the broad basis of 
the atonement of Jesus Christ, and a possible salvation for 
the world, we hold that man's free agency and responsibility 
is a leading doctrine of the Bible, and that his whole 
salvation is conditional, and turns on faith in Christ. 



302 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Calvinists, as has been elsewhere proven, discard all condi- 
tions, and allow of none in the plan of recovery; and while 
they hold to justification by faith, they even contend that 
this is the sovereign gift of God, flowing out of a regener- 
ated heart in its first exercises. As to our position in 
relation to eternal life, it has already been proven to be 
conditional, and to turn on faith in the Son of God. This 
being once proven, the controversy ought to end, for as 
much as this is the sum total of the gospel. Eternal life 
once secured to the Christian, at whatever time, and on 
whatever condition it may be done, it holds good forever, and 
is at once the vitality of perseverance, and only another 
name for it. To be convinced that perseverance and 
certainty of heaven are conditional and, not unconditional, 
we have only to look into an open Bible, where we find 
nothing to the contrary, but all on one side. " For God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." — John in. 16. This was the design of the 
gift — that they might have everlasting life, and that all who 
believe should have it. This is positive. And were it any 
other way, or rather, taught contrary to this, it would be 
most palpably in opposition to the plan and Word of God. 
No one ever has or ever will become a child of God and an 
heir of glory, who is capable of belief, except by faith. 
" For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." 
This is a condition ; it is the condition. The only objection 
to this view from the Calvinistic side, is its antagonism to 
their creed, for it comes in direct conflict with unconditional 
election. And the only ground of objection with Arminians 
is that it winds up too soon in Christian confirmation and a 
sealed title to eternal life, to agree with their notions of 
conditional salvation. It will, however, be seen to be as fully 
conditional if it should wind up in a confirmed title to 
everlasting life in a day, or an hour, as if it should require a 
whole lifetime. And certainly Arminians believe that every 
one who finally gains an entrance into glory will be sealed 
and placed beyond the possibility of falling at some time this 
side the gates of heaven. And if it should ever be done, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 303 

and responsible agents should be sealed on the gospel plan, 
and without the destruction of agency, why may it not be 
done a day, or a week, or a month, or a year, or even twenty 
years sooner? It is, in fact, the very same sentiment which 
we hold, only we differ as to time. We say, and I claim to 
have proven, that the time of a Christian's confirmation, 
according to the plan and Word of God, is the very instant 
of his spiritual birth. lie is then adopted and sealed an heir 
of God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, and no one can 
show any other time from the Word of God. The only 
retreat from this position which can be conceived at this time, 
is to deny confirmation and security altogether, and lay the 
ground-work for apostacy in heaven, which would be most 
fearfully hazardous to the cause of truth. Special attention is 
invited to this most wholesome and cheering truth — Christian 
confirmation. Remove it from the remedial scheme, and the 
saints in heaven have no rock of safety; all the guarantees 
are gone — swept away with one fell stroke, and all heaven 
may in the roll of years be depopulated and hung in gloom. 
There is, however, no intimation here that any evangelical 
body of Christians hold such sentiments, but the contrary. 
And I wish to impress the fact on the minds of all, that even 
those who object to our vievv # s of perseverance, do neverthe- 
less, fully and to all intents and purposes, subscribe to every 
essential element contained in the doctrine. It is the 
adaptation of the plan of free grace, fully and forever to 
save a sinner from his sins, and to contirm and seal his title 
to everlasting life at some time during his probationary state, 
which is this side of heaven; and this is all done by grace 
through Jesus Christ, and in conformity with free agency. 
Predestinarians are not included here, for as much as their 
scheme sets aside all conditions, and builds for certainty of 
future glory on fore-ordination. Now, as it has been shown 
that the vital feature of perseverance as held by us is 
everlasting life, and this cannot end, it will be seen that all 
who have it, or an irrevokable title to it, will certainly be 
saved. We contend that they will persevere. All those 
who reject our views, therefore, only r< ject them as to the 
time when Christ becomes our life and confirms our title. 



304 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

For they, too, believe in the reality of this same kind of 
life and the same kind of confirmation, at or before death. 
Having shown that there is an agreement thus far, we cannot 
be charged with inconsistency to any great extent, because 
we contend for the scriptural time for confirmation, and 
place it a little earlier than themselves. "We all believe this 
precious truth, and fondly cherish it in our hearts, that 
whenever Christ becomes our life, and this is hid with him 
in God, that whenever he appears we shall also appear with 
him in glory. Having proven the time of confirmation 
hitherto, I shall leave for a time this part of the argument, 
and devote a few thoughts to predestinarian objections, 
bearing on this point. They object, not to the doctrine, but 
more properly to the frame-work of it, as maintained by 
others. Their views of perseverance are briefly the follow- 
ing: " That God did, from all eternity, fore-ordain a certain 
definite number of the race to everlasting life and glory, and 
also ordained all the means for its accomplishment, that in 
due time Christ died for them, and the Holy Spirit will 
effectually call them, and they will be sanctified and glorified. 
This was all ordained, and will be consummated with 
unerring certainty. The rest of mankind were ordained to 
everlasting death, and Christ made no atonement for them." 
This is substantially the foundation on which they predicate 
the perseverance of the saints. Should this fail them, the 
next step must be to our standpoint, or give up the doctrine 
of perseverance althgether, which they certainly would not 
do. And as they discard all conditions, and hold to a 
sovereign change of heart, and faith a sovereign gift to all 
the elect, it would be difficult for them to leave their old 
platform and come to us. Hence, it must he manifest that 
they will give up neither unconditional election, nor perse- 
verance founded thereupon, without a struggle. For they 
stand or fall together, according to their views. In this 
place, I have but little to say in relation to predestination 
and unconditional election, only its bearing on the divine 
character, and its history in the world. These are certainly 
very gloomy, and not calculated to recommend it as the best 
means of promoting revivals of religion and the conversion 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 305 

of the world. And although its advocates have doubtless 
done great good in the world in promoting the cause of 
Christ, it does not appear in the history of revivals that 
unconditional election, however, had any part in the work, 
or has ever gained any trophies; nor have its defenders had 
any use for it in seasons of refreshing from the presence of 
the Lord. Its tendency has ever been to chill the Church, 
and to drive sinners into a state of stupor and inactivity; 
for no call or offer of life can be made to any but the elect, 
and they are certain to be brought in when the time comes, 
and all the residue will as certainly be lost. At the present 
day, this stern doctrine is being laid on the shelf to sleep the 
sleep of death, while the dust of ages shall gather upon it 
and cover it up, never to be aroused until God shall call 
it forth to meet his condemnation. For according to its 
stern features, truly some are saved, but all the rest are 
doomed to perdition from eternity. God is equally the 
author of both. He saved the one part, and damned the 
other, at the same time, and by the same decree, only turned 
in different directions. Therefore, while he is the author of 
all good, he is also the author of all evil and of all the sins 
and miseries in the regious of lost souls throughout the 
universe. Now, as this gloomy sentiment is the foundation 
of perseverance with its advocates, we reject both together — 
the eternal decrees, and perseverance on that basis — and seek 
for a better in Jesus Christ, and by faith in his name. For 
the Bible abounds everywhere with invitations, promises, and 
assurances to such as believe that they shall be saved. u He 
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." He has it 
now, since he believed, and from that time, and it was given 
on condition of faith in the Sou of God, and certainly he 
will persevere to the end and be finally saved. 

2. The second objection frequently urged against the 
doctrine of perseverance is that its tendency is licentious; it 
is thought to lead to negligence in Christian virtues, and 
carnal security. It will readily be seen that this plea is 
founded on the supposition that the motive power is removed 
by assurance and certainty of eternal life, and there is 
nothing to stimulate to a life of devotion, where the fear of 



306 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

hell is removed. The fear of hell would, in this event, be at 
least part of the motive which such objectors would hold out 
to influence Christians to walk in the ways of righteousness. 
It is one thing to present a motive, but quite another and 
difteient thing to adapt it well and truly to suit the case. It 
is very questionable whether this is the most suitable motive 
to hold out to a Christian who loves God, and delights in his 
service. 

The fear of death, and the promise of life, are both pre- 
sented in the gospel to sway the minds of the unconverted to 
forsake sin and seek the Lord, and such are threatened with 
death should they disregard the warning; but not a solitary 
instance can be found on record where God threatens to 
disinherit any of his children and consign them to hell. lie 
threatens them with chastisements, which is common with 
all his sons and heirs whom he hath received, but he never 
speaks of turning any of them into perdition. The motive 
held out to Christians is that which correlates with their new 
nature, that which they most of all love, and not that which 
they hiite. Christians, children of God, are said to be new 
creatures in Christ Jesus, to hate sin and love God. There- 
fore, as they are dead to the love of sin, and alive to God and 
holiness, how shall they take pleasure in sin, and turn away 
from the only fountain of living joy, to suffer the pains 
which sin inllicts? We have all the weight which reason can 
give to this argument, to sustain the opinion that the chil- 
dren of God love hirn, and have more delight in his service 
than in the service of sin, and would not of choice leave his 
service to serve sin, though they might feel an assurance 
fiom God of heaven. And certainly those who only serve 
God from a fear of hell and not from love to him, and the 
superior pleasure of his service, and feel it in their hearts 
to turn back were the fear of hell removed, give no evidence 
of a new heart, or that the spirit of Jesus Christ is in them. 
And such professors generally do turn back, and these are 
the only ones that do; for the Lord's people who have his 
love rooted and grounded in them, are more delighted in the 
path of holiness than in the crooked ways of sin, and would 
of choice serve the Lord. 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 307 

The very idea of rebellion, and the feeling and disposition 
to turn away from God, should it be made certain that we are 
sealed and certain of glory, is most appalling, and shocks the 
Christian heart. Such a feeling has never entered heaven, and 
never will; for it would, were it to possess the bosoms of the 
saints in light, hurl them at once into hell — it is the spirit of 
rebellion against God. Surely, nothing can be at a greater 
remove and more antagonistic to the spirit of Jesus Christ, 
which binds his people in loyalty to the eternal throne, than 
a feeling of disobedience and ingratitude to the Giver of all 
good, especially where the best gift of God has been 
bestowed, and a sealed title has been given to eternal life. 
'Ho one who has the spirit of the Son of God, can feel in his 
heart to rebel against the Almighty, when the fear of hell is 
removed, and assurance given. There is something in our 
holy religion which increases in love and loyalty to God in 
proportion as our acceptance with him is more manifest, and 
our certainty of future glory unquestionable. And whatever 
that mysterious something may be, which so binds all the 
saints together in heaven, and all of them in willing obedience 
to God, which will never be severed, it certainly begins here, 
and no time can be more scriptural than the very instant 
when Christ become the life of the soul which is hid with 
him in God. These are the only characters that will perse- 
vere to the end and finally be saved. All others, who stop 
short of this attainment, will fall away and turn back to sin. 
While it is urged by the advocates of the doctrine of ap »s- 
tacy, that the tendency of perseverance is licentious, it may 
not be amiss to test this question in a fair way, by a strict 
inquiry into the lives of the adherents of each system of doc- 
trine. And, although this mode of test is not claimed to be 
infallible, it must be as safe on the one side as on the other. 
Where, then, do we find the greatest number of backsliders, 
and looseness of life, in proportion to the numerical strength 
of each organization ? In answer, we can only give our own 
opinion, and leave the final decision to an impartial public. 
This much may be safely affirmed, that if the design of 
preaching apostacy is to guard the membership against it, 
there has been a manifest failure; for all meu will bear me 



308 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

witness, when I say, the backslidings of the people and their 
looseness of life under this sentiment have been fully equal 
to any thing of the kind which can be found anywhere else. 
This being a fact of history — as well as of observation — we 
may well enough test the soundness of each system by its 
practical influence upon the lives of its several adherents. 
And by this mode of test I have come to the conclusion that 
there is more stability and firmness of purpose manifested in 
the lives of Christians who adhere to the doctrine of perse- 
verance, as held by us, than can anywhere be found where 
the doctrine of apostacy is urged upon the consideration of 
Christians, to excite them to serve God from the fear of hell. 
No one will stand the test in passing the fiery ordeal through 
this world, and exhibit the outgoings of God in his life to the 
end, who has not the living God in the temple of his heart. 
This, and this only, is the great secret of the saints' perse- 
verance. All those who have this, will live right, persevere 
to the end, and finally be saved; but such as have not, will in 
due time disgrace their profession and go to their own place, 
though heaven and hell were unfurled before them. " They 
went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had 
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but 
they went out, that they might be made manifest that they 
were not all of us." — 1 John n. 19. The most powerful 
motive with a child of God, to stimulate him in his onward 
course in the ways of righteousness, is the love of God, and 
an earnest of heaven in his heart, with a full assurance of his 
final inheritance. This living principle being in him, it 
springs upward, and bears the affections of the soul to God 
and heaven. 

3. The gospel, however, presents motive to the minds of 
the unconverted, to influence the action of the heart and the 
choice of the will in the acceptance of the Son of God, 
which is the most weighty of which the human mind can con- 
ceive. God in wisdom has chosen and adapted it in the best 
possible form. True enough, the damning nature of sin is 
discovered and brought to light by the Spirit, while trembling 
and fear agitate the guilty soul; but this of itself is not 
enough to influence right action — there must be an offer of 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 309 

relief and life. Here, again, motive power may be tested, 
both in conformity with the doctrine of perseverance and 
that of apostacy. According to the first scheme, the tender 
is fairly made of deliverance from sin, and final salvation on 
the condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is 
vouchsafed accompanying grace, together with the assurance 
of glory in the end. This motive is full of promise and 
power — there is certainty, should the point of a new heart be 
reached, and Christ once be formed within the hope of glory, 
"that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then we 
also shall appear with him in glory." By this the mind is 
influenced to struggle for the rock of safety, "against which 
the gates of hell shall not prevail." Once planted here, the 
child of God stands and rejoices in the hope of the glory of 
God. Thus, the promise of the gospel is fulfilled, which 
says: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." But what is the motive to forsake sin and trust in 
Christ, according to the scheme of apostaoy ? In its best 
form, there is no certainty that he who believes in Christ will 
ever reach heaven — nothing but a bare probability. He is 
liable to fall back at every wrong step, and still back, more 
and more, until he is in a more hopeless condition, if possible, 
than if he had never started for heaven ; and it may be, and 
all the probabilities are on that side, that many anxious hearts 
are repulsed and driven back from seeking the Lord Jesus 
Christ, through a dread of loosing their religion by living in 
the world and falling into a worse state than the first. At 
this crisis, it were reasonable to suppose that when a sinner is 
halting and hesitating whether or not to seek the salvation 
of his soul, from the great uncertainty as to whether he 
would ever gain heaven or not, should he start, believing 
that multitudes have failed and that he might also fail, what 
could be better adapted to his case in this crisis, than the 
affirmation of the God of truth, that if he would believe in 
the Son of God with ail his heart, he should certainly be 
saved ? In fact, this view of the gospel plan has all the supe- 
riority over the scheme of apostacy that one thing can have 
over another. We see and feel this in the common affairs of 
life. No man has the same energy in striving for an uncer- 



310 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

tainty, as for a certainty. When any great consideration is 
held out with certainty, and tendered on any reasonable and 
possible condition, the move is made at once in view of suc- 
cess, when it would not be made with three-fourths of the 
chances against it. And whenever the condition is met, we 
expect the promisor to make his promise good. No one 
expects any certainty of heaven on the plan of apostacy, until 
death ; and doubtless multitudes are in constant dread of per- 
dition at last, having no lively hope to cheer them under life's 
trials and toils, but what grows out of the bare possibility that 
they may happen to he in the faith when death overtakes 
them. I can see nothing that is gained by the doctrine, or 
inducement for any one to preach it as a scheme of utility, 
when the motive of the gospel is greatly impaired by it, and 
sinners are hindered from trusting in Christ by it, and when 
no one's life as a Christian is made any better by it, than the 
Jives of those who do not believe it, but the very opposite. 
Men may, and often do, strive for that which is only possible, 
without any certainty; but when this is the case in view of 
probabilities, how greatly would their energies be quickened 
by certainty. We confidently believe that God can save 
sinners from their sins, and save them in the ways of holiness, 
and as he has promised so to do, he will perform what he has 
promised, and all this will be done without the least liability 
of encouraging a licentious life in his children. His grace 
will be sufficient for their day. 

4. There are some passages of scripture which are sup- 
posed to imply the possibility of falling away, or that Chris- 
tians may-apostatize from God — such as the following : " For 
it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and 
have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers 
of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, 
and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, 
to renew them again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to 
themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open 
shame." Again : " For if we sin wilfully after that we have 
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no 
more sacrifice for sin; but a certain fearful looking-for of 
judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adver- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 311 

earies." — Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6 ; and x. 26, 27. Whatever charac- 
ter may be referred to, the strongest possible language is used 
to prove that should they apostotize from their station, it 
would be impossible to renew them again — to restore them 
to the same condition and privileges. If, therefore, the true 
Christian were referred to, and such should fall away, the 
fall would be final and irrecoverable. Nothing would remain 
but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indig- 
nation, which should devo.ur them. 

While the impossibility of recovery in this case is affirmed, 
there is no affirmation that such persons ever had or ever 
would fall away — nothing more than a plain statement as to 
what the result would be, should they fall. One fact may be 
considered as fully established: Should such characters fall 
away, their doom would be fixed, and their case would be 
hopeless. The only Lord and Saviour, and his sacrifice for 
sin having been set aside and rejected, there would never be 
another. As to whether the reference is or is not to real 
Christians, I have no tenacity enlisted in that direction ; for 
while the apostle mentioned what the result would be, he 
never has intimated anywhere else, nor in this instance, that 
a child of God ever had or ever would fall under such hope- 
less condemnation. And, although the Christian character 
may he referred to, and so Dr. Barnes thinks, nevertheless, 
the apostle speaks in both places of true Christians, and with 
the most unshaken confidence and full persuasion that they 
would never fall. " But, beloved, we are persuaded better 
things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though 
we thus speak." — Heb. vi. 9. Again he says : "But we are not 
of them who draw back unto perdition ; but of them fhat 
believe to the saving of the soul." — Heb. x. 39. In relation to 
believers — beloved brethren — his persuasion was very differ- 
ent, he fully believed they would not draw back unto perdi- 
tion, but press toward the mark for the prize, and finally 
realize it in glory. Nothing could be plainer nor more fully 
established than the faith of Paul in relation to apostacy. 
He fully rejects it in this very connection, as well as else- 
where, and maintains the doctrine of perseverance and the 
final salvation of all true believers. No one, however, can, 



312 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

and certainly I cannot, doubt, that if the child of God were 
to commit such sins as to crucify the Son of God afresh and 
put him to an open shame, it would end in perdition; and 
if saints in heaven were to commit such crimes, they would 
he thrust down to hell to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire; 
yet none have ever so sinned, nor ever will. 

Such cases might be supposed, notwithstanding, for the 
purpose of exhibiting the enormity of sin, though it might 
never occur; and by so doing, the heaven-daring character of 
those who, often reproved and warned of their danger, but 
who still continued to stiffen their neck and resist the Holy 
Spirit, might more fully be brought to light, and the charac- 
ters themselves be brought to apprehend their liability of 
being given over of God. There is a point, in human life, 
under the dispensation of grace, where some men turn to God 
and heaven, and never turn again, but finally enter. And 
there is also a point trom which others turn to perdition, and 
never turn again, but persist in their mad course to hell. 
And manifestly, there is a point of light from the world to 
come, and of fair opportunities, and the tender of eternal life; 
and it may be that these characters turn their backs on each 
other at or near the same point, never to return or' meet 
again — the one to life, and the other to death. The Word of 
God nowhere tolerates sin, and more especially wilful, known 
sin. Those who love and practice sin, have no warrant from 
the Divine Word to think themselves new creatures in Christ. 
And such as live in known sin from year to year, when the 
Lord calls them now, have no assurance from him that he 
will hear with their presumption to the end of life, and then 
save them. Known, wilfull sin is certainly damaging* in its 
nature; and who will venture to say that sinners enlightened 
fully by the Holy Spirit may not and do not thus sin ? They 
sin against the good Word of God, and the powers of the 
world to come, when they sin with the light of the Holy 
Spirit shining into their hearts, and they are not and cannot 
be ignorant, but must know, and sin wilfully. And how 
often is their heart penitent? They repent, and come within 
one step of the kingdom — they are very near; but never take 
the other, the saving step, which is faith in the Son of God, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 313 

but with trembling, Felix-like, say, " Go thy way for this 
time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." 
Then, why may not this be the very character referred to, 
rather than the Christian who sins wilfully, after having 
received the knowledge of the truth? Certainly Paul no 
where else, should it be so in this instance, speaks of the 
wilful sins of Christians, not even as a possibility, but the 
contrary. And John says : " Whosoever is born of God doth 
not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he can- 
not sin ; because he is born of God." And Paul certainly 
held the same faith, where he says: "How shall we that are 
dead to sin, live any longer therein?" To say the least of 
this language, it does not even squint at the Christian as a 
wilful sinner, or as ever committing such sin at all. The 
words, "renew them again unto repentance," have lead some 
to the conclusion that the Christian character is referred to; 
for as much as they suppose repentance to be the fruit of the 
Spirit flowing from a regenerated heart. And thus the words 
"renew them again," are thought to signify that they had 
once been renewed to repentance. But, as sinners repent 
under the light of the Holy Spirit before they are regener- 
ated, they may repent and not be regenerated, and certainly 
will not, unless they also believe. And should anyone reject 
Christ at this point, wilfully, he might be deprived of the 
Spirit's influence, and repentance be forever impossible there- 
after. w Renew them again unto repentance," implies that 
they had once been penitent, and that it may have been of 
the right kind; but it by no fair interpretation signifies they 
had been renewed in their temper and disposition, or had 
the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Nor is there any intima- 
tion of faith in the Son of God, which is essential to a Chris- 
tian. And, although repentance is a necessary concomitant 
of faith, and always accompanies it, at the same time it is not 
faith, and does not supersede it; nor does faith in Christ 
necessarily and invariably succeed it: they are quite different 
exercises of the human heart; and, doubtless, multitudes 
repent who are never regenerated, because they did not also 
believe in the Son of God. They are like the man out of 
whom the unclean spirit had gone, walking through dry 
21 



314 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

places, seeking rest and finding none. They return to their 
old paths and habits, and their condition becomes seven-fold 
worse than before their dry reformation. Those who main- 
tain, as Dr. Barnes and all other predestinarians do, that 
both repentance and faith are gifts of God, flowing out of a 
new heart, are expected to think that all are Christians who 
repent; for they admit of no repentance in any case, where 
the heart has not been renewed. But the Bible teaches that 
sinners, being enlightened by the Spirit, repent, and if they 
also believe, they are renewed in their hearts and sealed to 
the day of redemption. Hence, penitent sinners may fall 
away and never be renewed, or brought to repentance again ; 
but such as repent and believe, " Shall not perish, but have 
everlasting life." 

5. A few thoughts will next be devoted to the consideration 
of the following connection of Scripture : " For if after they 
have escaped the pollution of the world, through the knowl- 
edge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again 
entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with 
them than the beginning. For it had been better for them 
not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they 
have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered 
unto them; but it is happened unto them according to the 
true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again ; and 
the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in mire." — 2 Peter 
ii. 20, 21, 22. This connection is closed by the writer, with a 
quotation from Proverbs xxvi. 11, doubtless for the purpose 
of giving his exposition of what had gone before : "As a dog 
returneth to Ins vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly." And 
to make it still more impressive, he adds : "And the sow that 
was washed, to her wallowing in the mire." The character 
described had escaped the pollutions of the world, through a 
knowledge of the Saviour; had known the way of righteous- 
ness, and the holy commandment; but had turned away from 
all this, and become worse and more vile than if he had never 
known these things. This accords with both Scripture and 
reason ; for the Saviour often taught the Jews that their con- 
dition would be worse, and tlieit punishment greater, than 
even that of the Sodomites; because they had the law and 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 315 

the prophets, and also Christ himself, and mighty signs 
and wonders were wrought among them. But after all, they 
only escaped some of the pollutions of the world, some out- 
ward sins. For while they were very strict religionists, and 
constant attendants on the temple service, and even rebuked 
the Son of God for his apparent neglect of the Sabbath, they 
w T ere, after all this, only as whited sepulchres, washed on the 
outside; while within, they were full of rottenness and filth ; 
like the washed sow, still inclined to go back to the mire. 
True, in this language of Peter, we have proof of clear light, 
of fair opportunities, and of outward reformation, but no 
evidence of a new heart, or the mind that was in Christ. 
The old man was still there, inclined to return to the filth 
of the world. Like, the filthy dog and washed sow, still the 
very same animals, with the same old natures, inclined to 
old habits. Had they been changed into sheep they would 
not have been inclined to do as the dog and sow. The entire 
chapter shows that they were like Balaam, and other false 
prophets and deceivers, and the fruits of such persons — 
labors — notwithstanding their knowledge and reformation. 
For how often in our day, are many of those who are 
correctly instructed, and brought to feel their lost condition 
and need of salvation, but at this very point are drawn 
away, and instead of Christ, they are presented with some 
shadow, or form, to quiet their conscience and ruin their 
souls. Such religionists go back like the sow, and never 
forward like Paul, " who pressed toward the mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." In short, 
there is no evidence in this place of apostasy, such as to 
overthrow all the testimony elsewhere in the Bible to the 
contrary. And there is the total absence of any clear case 
of actual apostasy ever having occurred since the plan of 
salvation was devised. 

6. Cases of actual apostasy have been alleged, such as 
Judas, and brought to bear upon the doctrine of persever- 
ance. It has been urged with no little confidence that Judas 
was a Christian, and fell from grace. If this could be shown 
in any clear way whatever, it w T ould suffice for all, and settle 
the question. For it is at once admitted that his end was 



316 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

gloomy and most wretched, and doubtless lie went to perdi- 
tion. For he not onl} 7 laid violent hands on his own life, but 
he betrayed the innocent Son of God, and Jesus said it had 
been better for this man had he never been born. He was 
numbered with the twelve apostles chosen by Christ, was a 
witness of his miracles and of his doctrine, but not of his 
death and resurrection; and certainly he was one of the 
most mysterious characters of the race, and we know not 
why he was chosen by our Lord. Christ came into this 
world to die for sinners that they might have everlasting life, 
and certainly his betrayal by Judas had no merit in it, and 
could contribute nothing to the efficacy of the atonement. 
In fact, nothing which Judas did in this affair, had any thing 
to do with what Christ came to do for the salvation of the 
world in any essential way, in so far as we can see, more than 
the cross on which he suffered, the nails which fastened him 
to wood, or satan who tempted him. Yet all this, wicked as 
it was, and hateful in the sight of God, was foreseen as it 
actually occurred, and was foretold by the prophets, but not 
ordained of the Almighty. For Christ, who came to die, 
could have done so, and would, as he did, when he volun- 
tarily gave up the ghost. Judas sinned under no decree of 
God, but against every righteous law known in the universe, 
and against every righteous decree of the Almighty. But 
all this wickedness was overruled, and God triumphantly. set 
his Son upon his holy hill of Zion, a prince and Saviour, to 
grant repentance and remission of sins. Though this 
betrayer of Christ repented, it was unto death, for he fell — 
fell from office, died and went to his own place. He was lost 
forever. Let us now see what his character was in relation 
to Christianity in its true sense. If he ever was a regener- 
ated man, he certainly apostatized and sunk to perdition, and 
this would be one case of apostasy, but not of recovery. 
We can only learn what he was from the inspired record. 
The Saviour says, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one 
of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of 
Simon : for he it was that should betray him, being one of 
the twelve." — John vi. 70, 71. Judas was one of the twelve 
chosen by Christ, and at the time of this utterance he was a 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 317 

devil. Whether he had previously been such or not, we are 
to see. John vi. 64: "But thete are some of you that believe 
not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were 
that believed not, and who should betray him." This verse 
not only demonstrates that he was an unbeliever at this time, 
but had been such from the first. "For Jesus knew from 
the beginning who they were that believed not. This was 
Judas the traitor. He believed not, never believed in Christ, 
and he knew it from first to last — " from the beginning." 
As he never was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he never 
was a Christian or child of God. He could not be such, 
being an unbeliever, though he was one of the twelve, and 
held the office of apostle. But we may note this man still 
further in this inquiry. In his mediatorial supplications, our 
Lord prays for certain specifics, which were granted by his 
Father. In his prayer, see the following: "While I was 
with them in the world, I kept them in thy name : those that 
thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the 
son of perdition; that the Scriptures might be fulfilled." — 
John xvn. 12. Judas could not be included in the number 
of those given him, and for whom he prayed, for he says they 
had kept the Father's word. This was not true of the son of 
perdition, for Christ had previously said he was an unbe- 
liever and a devil. It is, however, thought by some that the 
language used by our Lord admits of an exception — that he 
had kept all except Judas the son of perdition, but had lost 
him. That he intended no such exception, or advantage to 
be taken of his very plain words, we shall see in the next 
chapter. " If therefore ye seek me, let these go their 
way:" that the saying might be fulfilled, "Of them which 
thou gavest me, have I lost none." — John xviii. 8, 9. This is 
positive, and admits of no quibble. He had lost none. And 
this positive declaration is said to be a fulfilment of what had 
been previously said in relation to this same fact, as recorded 
in John xvn. Therefore, our Lord's saying may be rendered 
thus in this place : " Those that thou gavest me I have kept, 
and none of them is lost: but the son of perdition is." 
Again: "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, 
that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, 



318 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

but should raise it up again at the last day." — John vi. 39. 
This kind of gift implies more thau the office of an apostle. 
It signifies certain and eternal salvation, for Christ says that 
he will raise such up at the last day. And again: "And I 
give unto them eternal life: and they shall never perish, 
neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, 
which gave them me, is greater than all ; and none is able to 
pluck them out of my Father's hand." — John x. 28, 29. As 
has been demonstrated, Judas never believed in Christ; he 
was never given to him. Christ never gave him eternal life, 
and when he perished, he perished for neglecting salvation, 
and never as an apostate, who once had eternal life given 
him, but lost it, and slipped through the fingers of our Lord, 
or w T as plucked out of his baud. Our Lord Jesus Christ 
never has and never will lose one, if we are to believe his 
Word; but he will raise all up at the last day in his own 
glorious likeness, to behold his glory and dwell forever in his 
presence. 

7. Peter, who was one of the boldest, most active, and 
useful of the apostles, is thought to have apostatized, by 
some religionists. If by apostasy it is only meant that he 
sinned, and sinned egregiously, this is admitted; but if we 
are to understand that he passed out of the gracious hands 
of the Son of God, this is denied. He was guilty, both of 
swearing and falsehood — he denied his innocent, suffering 
Master with asseverations. This had been foretold by the 
Saviour, while Peter, full of self-confidence, boasted of his 
own integrity and firmness, asserting though all men should 
deny the Lord, yet he would never forsake him. He, 
however, soon learned his own weakness and entire 
dependence upon the Pock of Ages, when surrounded by an 
infuriated mob, and both himself and his Master were 
threatened with death. In t his critical situation, he denied 
diseipleship, or that he knew the holy Jesus. And if it had 
not been for one thing he would have fallen, or totally apos- 
tatized. The thing that saved him was, he had been given to 
Christ, to use Scripture language, and he had given him 
eternal life. "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall 
never perish." Peter was a child of God; he had given his 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 319 

heart to him by faith in his Son. He was an adopted heir, 
and a joint heir with Christ, " and was kept by the power of 
God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in 
the last time." Such are denominated by the beloved 
apostle, little children. " My little children, these things 
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we 
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the right- 
eous." — 1 John ii. 1. Peter sinned contrary to all good 
counsel, but still being a child of Gocl, he had an advocate 
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who, in his own 
Scripture phrase, prayed for him. "And the Lord said, 
Simon, Simon, behold, satan hath desired to have you, that 
he may sift you as wheat : but I have prayed for thee, that 
thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen 
thy brethren." — Luke xxn. 31, 32. 

As we have seen, in the mediatorial prayer, Christ prayed 
for those who had been given him, so in this place we see 
that he told Peter specially, that he had interceded for him, 
that his faith might not fail. Yet, it has been supposed by 
some, that his faith did fail and he became an apostate, 
because our Lord said to him, when thou art converted, 
strengthen thy brethren. Such a conclusion would certainly 
be hasty, to say nothing more about it, for our Lord was 
never disappointed in any thing for which he prayed, and he 
prayed for Peter, that his faith might not, and surely it did 
not, fail. If it had in this sense, that would have been a 
clear fall, but Christ did not let him go; he held on to him, 
and satan could not pluck him out of the hand of the Son of 
God. His sin was very great, yet it does not appear that he 
had any dislike for the Saviour, and one look from his 
piercing eye stirred up the depths of his soul, and caused his 
tears to flow in bitter and deep repentance. If he fell, his 
fall and rise were in quick succession, for very soon after he 
sinned he repented. Surely, all Christians who sin do not 
fall, for then we should often fall were this doctrine true, 
provided we should rise after such falls. " When thou art 
converted, strengthen thy brethren." Conversion does not 
necessarily and always signify regeneration, or a change of 
heart, nor does it imply this much in this case, for there was 



320 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

no failure of Peter's faith which he had; it continued. Then 
his conversion was something else, and not regeneration. It 
was a change of some importance, which could take place in 
one who at the time might be a new man. Peter was 
evidently self-confident when he affirmed he would never 
deny his Lord, though all others might do so. But very 
soon he fell into that sin against which, in his own strength, 
he had protested, and became convinced — converted from the 
pernicious error of self-confidence, instead ol an humble 
reliance upon God and his grace. One of such a sad experi- 
ence might well strengthen his brethren by solemn warning 
against trusting in an arm of flesh, and invite their special 
and constant trust in the Almighty arm. Peter's case may 
well and truly be called up as evidence that a good man may 
commit sin, as the Word of God fully establishes, but not to 
prove the doctrine of apostasy. For the proof is full and 
clear that he did not apostatize, though he sinned. His faith 
did not fail, as Christ substantially said, when he told him he 
had prayed for him that it might not fail, but continue. 
Were it not for such plain and unequivocal declarations as 
the above, it might be thought and even urged that Peter 
apostatized, but was restored. But under the circumstances 
of the case throughout, and all the parts relating to it, such 
a conclusion would be rash, as it would stand up in total 
disregard of the Lord's Word. It is matter of devout grat- 
itude to God, that not one case has ever yet been known that 
a truly regenerated child of God has been lost, nor is 
there any proof that any one ever will be, but the fullest 
assurances from the Lord to the contrary. 

8. We are by no means to overlook the peculiar adaptation 
of the plan of recovery to our fallen race. Except through 
the Lord Jesus Christ, we are certain of nothing good, but 
on this rock there is safety. Such is the nature of divine 
grace and its power in the human soul, as to create within it 
an undying love to God and hatred to sin, and here the 
principle of life and eternal allegiance springs up forever. 
It has already been shown that the vitality of the plan and 
the excellency of our holy religion consist in giving to the 
free and responsible soul of man a living, never-failing, 






LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 321 

endless reality, which binds him to God, and God to him 
forever. This is denominated eternal life, it is Christ in the 
soul, the hope of glory, and is both sure and steadfast, 
having entered into that within the vail. As has been 
proven, this work is done by the Spirit, and this gift 
bestowed on condition of faith in the Son of God, and at the 
time of justificatian, regeneration, and adoption, and the 
chord which binds such souls to God, is represented by the 
strong grip of the Lion of the tribe of Judah and that of 
his Father, from which they never can be plucked, and they 
will never let them go. There is evidently some glorious 
mystery in spiritual religion, which, while it gives the 
greatest certainty of future glory, there is no desire within 
to turn back to sin, either in this world, or in that which is 
to come. Surely, none of the saints have ever fallen from 
heaven, and it has never been proven, and never can be, that 
any child of God has ever been torn from the Saviour, either 
by himself or any other power. They all serve God with 
cheerful obedience above, and the same life principle which 
leads to it there, prompted to it here in this world before 
they entered glory. Those who suppose this doctrine to be 
of a dangerous tendency — a tendency to influence Christians 
to leave the service of God and go back to the world, ought 
to look well to this matter. Such as go back to wilful sin 
do not go with Christ in their heart, nor by turning him out 
of it, but they go back to where they properly belong, to 
their own native element, and the only reason which can be 
scripturally given for such a drawback is, that the spirit of 
Jesus Christ was not in them. They did not draw back to 
perdition because they were assured, according to the 
doctrine of perseverance of future glory, but because they 
loved sin and not God. 

The danger does not appear and cannot be found in the 
doctrine of perseverance; nevertheless, it may be found 
somewhere, and it is real and imminent. It consists in a 
religion which never transforms the heart and fills it with the 
living God and his love, but leaves the whole body of sin 
there, with scarcely a sickening wound. "We are often and 
earnestly admonished to self-examination, to examine 



322 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

ourselves. " Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith : 
prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how 
that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ? But I 
trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates." — 2 Cor. 
xiii. 5, 6. Here we see that pure religion is a living reality 
in the heart, to be felt aud known by all who possess it. 
The apostle emphatically says that Jesus Christ is in all those 
who are not reprobates, or unrenewed sinners, and that they 
may prove themselves and know it, know themselves to be 
in the faith. Many, it is to be feared, who claim to be Chris- 
tians and to have a hope of heaven, never know Christ to be 
in them by the witness of the Spirit, and never give any 
evidence of it by their correspondent fruits and lives. 
Consequently, their lives are a foul blot on the Christian 
name, and they go back to perdition because they were not 
of us. Christ was not in them, for if he had been, they 
would no doubt have continued with us, but they went back, 
that it might be manifest " that they were not of us." The 
first and principal thing to be guarded in the Christian 
religion is, the vital principle in the hearts of those who 
profess it, witnessed by the Spirit within, and demonstrated 
by their lives in the sight of all men. Those who have 
Christ in their hearts know it themselves, and they will 
manifest it to the world, for Christ will show himself in their 
lives, as sure as he lives, and when he appears in glory, they 
shall appear with him. Admonitions and warnings are 
often given by the Lord to his people, to watch and pray, 
lest they enter into temptation, and he often chastens them, 
but always with parental kindness, and never in anger, lt'is 
done for their good, and not for destruction. The Lord does 
not cast off his adopted children, for they are heirs of God, 
and joint heirs with his Son Jesus Christ, and are sealed to the 
day of redemption. Therefore, as the course and life of the 
Saviour while on earth were onward and upward, so will 
that of his children be, forasmuch as he is their life and lives 
in them. As Paul has said, ".I am crucified with Christ: 
nevertheless, I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and 
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the 
Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 323 



LECTURE XVII.— THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 

MAN AND ALL OTHER MORAL 

SUBJECTS. 



The righteous reward of all virtue and punishment of vice, 
the introduction of evil into our world and into the moral 
universe can only be reconciled with the character and gov- 
ernment of God on the ground of free moral agency and 
creature responsibility in the fullest sense. In the same 
sense, and to the very same degree that liberty and responsi- 
bilit}^ are lessened in relation to rational creatures, 
guilt and blame are removed from them arid placed elsewhere. 
And whenever we cease to blame the creature, I can see no 
point in the universe where blame can settle down except at 
the Eternal Throne. Creatures are only creatures,- whether 
they be angels or men, and they are equally dependent on the 
Creator, and the mighty angel has no more moral power to do 
his Maker's will than the man ; they are both equally able to 
stand and equally liable to fall. And there is, it seems to me, 
no difference in moral actions, only in relation to intelligence, 
ability, and freedom of choice. Where these are all wanting 
there can be no action of a moral character, and if any one of 
them is wanting it is as impossible to conceive of sin or of 
praise or blameworthy actions as if they were all wanting. 
When I speak of ability to obey or disobey God, I mean 
plainly all that can be meant by both natural and moral 
ability, so far as we responsible creatures have any need of 
them, and I say we have them by nature and grace through 
Jesus Christ. If these were necessary and we have them not, 
and can by no means obtain them, the want of them is no 
crime in us, unless through our crime we had lost them. I 
therefore maintain that we have all the ability which we 
need to do whatever our Heavenly Father requires of us. 



324 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

I can see no use in all which has been said in relation to 
natural ability by necessitarians., if, as they say, there is a 
moral inability to be overcome or removed, which all their 
boasted natural ability can never do. We do not deny the 
existence of natural ability more than we do that of moral 
ability, nor do we doubt but there is some distinction between 
them. But what of all that when it must be a plain matter- 
of-fact that no free agent is to lack anything which belongs 
to free agency and responsibility, whether it be natural or 
moral ability, for just in the ratio which any moral agent 
lacks anything essential to his responsibility is he irresponsi- 
ble, and nothing is more inconsistent than the position some- 
times taken that natural ability is sufficient of itself to enable 
us to obey God, or to constitute us fully responsible, and yet 
we are told that no one of all the race ever has or ever w 7 ill 
obey God without moral ability. Surely, then, natural 
ability must be very feeble in morals and religion if it never 
has done any real good in this respect, and never will. How 
can we know that it is an ability at all in any religious sense, 
when it has never done anything in this way, and never will ? 
I consider nothing an ability in any true sense which is totally 
useless in accomplishing the very thing to be accomplished, 
and can answer no good purpose, but on the contrary only 
casts a thicker gloom over the truth searched for. If free 
agents are required to exercise natural ability, they must have 
it, and if the exercise of moral ability is required, they must 
have that or a compliance w^ould be absolutely impossible. 

President Edwards says "that moral necessity may be as 
absolute as natural necessity." President Edwards certainly 
held natural necessity to be absolute and insurmountable, 
and whenever it holds any one fast in its ponderous chains, 
there can be no responsibility; and he says moral necessity 
may be equally as absolute, and he certainly holds that it is, 
but does he hold that all such, or that any one under such 
moral fate is excusable ? Certainly not. Under the former 
there can be no blame, while under the latter there is guilt 
and condemnation. These are some of his words: "It is 
indeed a very plain dictate of common sense that natural 
necessity is wholly inconsistent with just praise or blame.' 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 325 

Again he says, " In like manner, if things in themselves good 
and desirable are absolutely impossible, with a natural im- 
possibility, the universal reason of mankind teaches that this 
wholly and perfectly excuses persons in their not doing 
them." Now, why is it not equally as plain a dictate of com- 
mon sense that moral necessity, which is as absolute as 
natural necessity, is inconsistent with just praise or blame? 
The only reason assigned is, that the will of man is free in 
acting under moral necessity, which is not supposable in the 
other case. But if the will of man is absolutely influenced 
and controlled by a superior power, though it may be said to 
act freely and of choice, is not that act and choice as com- 
plete a necessity as any case of necessity in the moral uni- 
verse? The freedom in this case will be seen to be just such 
as we find in the running of a stream down the channel — it 
is free only because it is so ordered that it must run and can- 
not do otherwise, and is not absolutely hindered or prevented. 
Necessitarians will allow that there is no freedom and respon- 
sibility where there is a hindrance to prevent the action. It 
is naturally impossible in such circumstances. But let us see 
if the impossibility is not as absolute and as fatal to free 
action and choice, when there is a power behind the throne 
to produce the action, as when the power is before the throne 
to prevent it. The action is said to be free when it is pro- 
duced by an over-ruling power and all hindrances are taken 
out of the way, but not free and responsible if the power 
steps before the throne and prevents. Here let me say that it 
must be next to impossible for any one to rind any difference 
between the freedom of actions when they are all forced, 
w r hether they are forced by a power behind or before the 
throne, whether up or down, east or west, there is no respon- 
sibility in either case. I maintain that when actions ot the 
will are free in the true and proper sense, there is to be no 
power or force used in any way, so as to produce actions or 
to prevent them, for all actions must be as the superior power 
w r ills who superinduces them, and the creature acting is but 
the instrument in the hand of another, and not the responsi- 
ble agent. 

President Edwards, throughout the whole course of his 



326 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

inquiry concerning the freedom of the will, aims to main- 
tain the doctrine of absolute necessity of all kinds, and 
also to reconcile it with the moral freedom of the will and the 
moral government and administration of God. In the argu- 
ment on the will he only presents two faculties of the soul, i. e., 
intelligence and will; the affections or sensibilities are so 
blended with the will as to constitute but one and the same. 
Hence he says, "the will is as the greatest good." That is, 
the will is governed by the desires, affections, appetites, and 
passions. Consequently all motives of all kinds which ope- 
rate on the will, so as to produce action and choice, have 
their seat in the affections and their firm hold upon the will 
and determine its action and choice. 

Indeed, the motive and will are in correlation, and the 
action of the will depends upon the motive for its existence 
as the efficient cause — as the producer of the will and choice. 
Thus, the will being produced by the motive, and the affec- 
tions, desires, and appetites being blended with the will, the 
will is as the appetites; and either the sensibilities are 
changed by the motive, or he who wields the motive changes 
the sensibilities so as to embrace it as the greatest good. 
Hence we see that the actions of all intelligent creatures are 
as the motives, and the motives are as the will of him who 
wields them and works all things according to the counsel 
of his own will, and the will of God — the motive presented 
and the actions of all wills are in correlation. This being 
Edward's scheme of necessity, I should think it impossible to 
find moral evil in the universe, for if the first will is good, so 
all the series in the long chain of cause and effect will be 
good, and the responsibility of all dependent beings is a great 
farce and deception. Where, then, is the will's freedom, and 
in what does it consist? It cannot consist in anything but 
liberty to do the will of God, and no necessitarian will ven- 
ture to say that any being in the moral universe wills con- 
trary to both the secret and revealed will of God — all actions 
are in perfect correlation with one or the other of these wills. 
And then, strange as it may appear, we are informed that 
while we obey one of these wills we disobey the other, and 
are justly liable to everlasting punishment. They tell us, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 327 

however, that the secret will of God is not the rule of our 
actions, but the revealed will is. I must, therefore, be par- 
doned when I say that the teaching is plainly that God has 
two wills as diametrically opposite as. good and evil, as sin 
and holiness. I must, therefore, inquire whether there is 
not something somewhere in the scheme of necessity most 
radically wrong and detrimental to divine truth? To follow 
President Edwards, and others who agree with him through all 
their winding and intricacies, is not my purpose in this place. 
My design is to find some radical error at the very root of 
the scheme, and by so doing, uproot the whole scheme of the 
necessitated will. And this can be done, unless the advocates 
of the scheme fully take the position that God is the proper 
author of all sin of men and devils, or hide in the unexplored 
regions of mystery. Then let us begin at this point, where 
we find things in their original purity, and man in the like- 
ness of his Maker. All will agree, Calvinists as truly as 
others, that man was created in the likeness of his Maker, 
and that he was at least free from all moral stain and pollu- 
tion. The next great fact is that man sinned and fell by the 
exercise of his own free will and choice. Here Calvinists tell 
us that God knew before he made man that he would sin. 
But we are not concerned about what God foreknew, but the 
matter in dispute is, did God decree and exercise his will and 
agency in producing sin in the person of Adam ? We have 
been often told that the sin of Adam is an ultimate fact, and 
we have no right to inquire how it was that he sinned 
and fell from a state of purity — all we have to do with it is to 
believe it as a fact. But still, the matter forces itself upon us 
that Adam was either forced to sin in some way, or he was 
not. According to Edwards, Adam never could disobey God 
while he remained pure in heart, nor can any one ever come 
back to God who has an impure heart, until the affections, of 
the soul are first changed and made pure. As the whole 
question of free agency must rest here, I shall examine the 
going off from God first, and secondly the return of man 
to God through Christ. 

Then first, man's departure from his Maker. — Necessitarians 
reason from effect to cause in morals as they do in nature, 



328 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

and as all natural effects must have their efficient causes, so 
must all moral effect have their efficient causes, and all these 
effects and causes must correlate. In other words, all good 
effects must have good causes, and all bad effects must be the 
result and product of bad causes. Then we must conclude, 
in conformity with this scheme, that Adam, being pure when 
first created, could never sin until his heart was first 
changed from good to evil, for it is assumed that he could 
by no volition of his soul change the quality of his heart, as 
all the determinations of the will must be determined by a 
previous determination of the will, and so on, ad infinitum. 
Now, where is the truth? Is it truth that man, being pure, 
could not sin under the moral government of God, unless God 
in some way fitted him for the deed by infusing impurity 
into his soul? If so, whose sin would that be? We are told 
that it would be man's own sin, forasmuch as it was man's 
own free act, and his will acted freely, not being hindered by 
the Almighty. But then, who was the efficient cause of the 
act thus brought about? Evidently God was the efficient 
cause of the act, evil as it was, and here we have the best of 
all causes producing the worst of all effects — the sin of Adam ! 
Where then is the soundness of the Edwards' position, that 
a pure man could not sin with a pure heart, when the super- 
latively perfect Jehovah could do worse — he could make man 
pure and then, in order to necessitate him to sin, make him 
impure, that he might act or work out what God worked in 
him, and all this circular motion in order to prove man's 
responsibility in conformity with mighty necessity. In other 
words, pure man could not sin, but his holy Maker could, or 
could be the author and producer of all sin and the approver 
of his own acts and doings, and also the disapprover of man's 
acts produced by himself. Then we are told that all this is a 
a great mystery. No, it is not. The mystery is that wise and 
good men could ever believe such absurdities, and take them 
for God's pure truths. The truth must be that man remained 
as God made him up to the very instant of time that his 
soul willed to do what he was forbidden to do, and his soul 
never became impure until he determined to do wrong. The 
act of the mind was a wrong act, it was forbidden, and then 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 329 

the soul became impure and guilty. But before the wrong 
determination of the mind there was no impurity in the soul, 
nor does the Word of God say there was — it says the very 
reverse. It is vain philosophy that says man could not trans- 
gress until his Maker made him do it by first making a 
sinner by corrupting his soul, for Calvinists tell us that 
depravity or impurity of heart is the very essence of sin, 
and if so, man was a sinner, to all intents and purposes, before 
there was any free act and choice of his will. But we must 
see what man was before he acted and determined in his 
mind to disobey. He was brilliant in his Maker's likeness, 
but after he willed he became an impure sinner. This is 
Bible truth, and not vain, proud reasoning. Man was not a 
polluted sinner before he was, nor are we to so reason. We 
must have the fact of man's disobedience before our minds 
first before we can scripturally conclude that he was a 
polluted sinner. God said to Adam : " But of the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in 
the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." — Gen. n. 17. 
The question very naturally arises in the mind, was man 
depraved and consequently dead in a moral sense before he 
disobeyed? If so, the act of the will had nothing to do in the 
affair, it was only the evidence of a sinful heart and the fruit 
of a morally dead man ; it had nothing to do in producing 
that which was already there. It is, however, much more 
consistent and scriptural to conclude that man could sin with 
a pure heart than to suppose that God could pollute him and 
necessitate his sinful action and then hold him responsible for 
it. I maintain that the death threatened followed immedi- 
ately, on the very same day man resolved, determined, 
willed to disobey; and it was a moral death, depravity, impu- 
rity, the loss of the divine image, and this resulted in the 
death of the body as an effect. This is death in trespasses 
and sins. The sin was a transgression of the divine law, and 
the death which follows it was the penalty, and God could in 
righteousness inflict the penalty after the sin was committed, 
but not before, as necessitarians have supposed. Sin was the 
cause, and the righteous cause, of depravity, and not depravity 
the cause of sin in the case of Adam ; but his crime was 
22 



330 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

not completely consummated until he really did eat the for- 
bidden fruit. But it may be asked how man's act of mind in 
willing to disobey could pollute his heart. To which I can 
well reply to those who hold that God could and did pollute 
man before he sinned, that he might sin, that God could well 
inflict the penalty due transgression upon the actual trans- 
gressor after he sinned; and those who hold that he might 
and actually did pollute him before, that he might and 
would necessarily sin, will surely have no difficulty on the 
principles of justice. In other words, God might justly curse 
man for his sin, but he could not righteously curse him, 
while innocent, with moral death that he might sin. 

Again, it is objected that actions of free agents can have no 
moral quality only as they have it from the state of the heart 
or the quality of the affections; that the quality of the 
heart gives moral quality to the actions. In some instances 
and under some circumstances this is true, but is it true 
under all circumstances that none of the actions of intelli- 
gent, accountable creatures can have any moral quality what- 
ever, except as the heart is either good or bad? Most evi- 
dently it is not true in all cases and under all circumstances. 
It is no doubt true in all cases where the creature is the prime 
instrument of his own pollution of heart; he is then to blame 
for both the pollution and all the bad effects flowing therefrom. 
But if God should be pleased in his sovereign will and pleas- 
ure to make a creature impure, or afterwards, and before he 
acted, to pollute him, how could such actions have any moral 
quality in reference to the creature any more than the 
appetite of hunger? The position that the actions of free 
moral agents can have no moral quality, except from the 
quality of the heart, is one of the cardinal errors which has 
led many to suppose that man, who was made in the likeness 
of God, could not sin until he was first polluted, which could 
only be done by his Maker. All must see that moral 
actions, the actions of responsible creatures, under divine law 
must either be right or wrong, obedient or disobedient to the 
rule of action. And it is not in all cases true that the quality 
of the heart gives quality to the actions, so as to make 
them good or evil. In responsible agents there must 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 331 

be intelligence or wisdom to know the right, ability 
to do the right, and freedom of soul to will or 
choose the right or the contrary. These give quality 
to actions under the government of God, and these powers 
gave quality to Adam's actions in his first transgression. 
And those who controvert it must, as they do, hold that God 
polluted man's soul by motive or otherwise before he sinned. 
But I say that the actions of responsible creatures must have 
moral quality and be either right or wrong, whatever may 
be the motive of the agent. The law of God holds on firmly 
to its' rights and will not yield or bend, and if we do not 
know what it claims of us, it is nevertheless our duty to 
know, and not plead our ignorance when we might know 
and do. 

Adam knew his duty, but he did not know by sad 
experience what sin was until he sinned in his own person 
and felt conscious guilt in his soul. To say that actions have 
no moral quality only as they have it from the quality of the 
heart, is the same as begging the question at the sacrifice 
of man's ageucy, the dishonor of God and the Bible, that 
all these may be immolated upon the altar of reason. I am 
the more fully convinced that this notion is erroneous from 
the fact that it is the very platform of infidels. They hold 
that God has given us our nature and placed us under an 
absolute necessity of nature, so that we cannot act otherwise 
than we do, and that whatever is is right — there is no moral 
quality in creature actions, no moral evil. But necessitarians 
tell us that we reject their great doctrines of grace because 
we are carnal and our hearts are not subject to the law of 
God. But are not infidels and universalians carnal, who do 
at least hold the doctrine of fatal necessity ? Angels sinned 
and fell, "they left their own habitations; some of them kept 
not their first estate, but sinned." Did God change their 
natures from holiness to sin; did he do it by a direct act of 
divine power, or by the presentation of motive, and was there 
no moral quality in their actions until some mighty efficient 
cause polluted their great powers? If God polluted them 
before they acted, theyjwere not fit for heaven or the high 
station they occupied, and ought to have been removed, even 



332 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

before they acted out what was wrought within. But it is 
said they sinued — kept not their first estate. Therefore it is 
certain they were uuder law and knew the right, "but did it 
not ;" they were yet under trial; they were moral agents and 
their actions had a moral quality, and their natures were 
stained as a penal infliction. This, to my mind, is a much 
more consistent and scriptural view, than to suppose God 
first infused impurity into them, or in any other way fitted 
them for sinful actions, as though he were resolved to make 
them ruin themselves by first influencing them to sin. God 
certainly could make both men and angels with just such 
abilities and just such freedom as that it was possible for 
their actions to be their own, and to have a moral quality, 
either good or bad, according to action in view of law, irre- 
spective of a polluted nature, and if he could, who will say 
that he did not do it ? Actions may be free, but a nature may 
sometimes be absolute, and more especially when the giver of 
it designs it and determines it to a certain course of conduct 
under laws as absolute as the laws of gravitation in the mate- 
rial world. But actions, to be ours, must be determined by 
us in view of right, and be free from force of every kind, 
whether it be nature or direct power exerted upon us or in us. 
The principles and facts with regard to free agencj' once 
ascertained and understood, we may proceed with safety 
through the whole course of man's responsibility from the 
first to the last man. Agency is not altered under the divine 
government in any respect from what it was at first ; and 
what it was in the first man of the race, it continues to be 
to the present time under grace. Man, then, we have seen, 
sinned and fell; he went oil from God — he kept not his 
first estate, though he was pure. If he was pure at first, and 
became impure by his own free action, for which he was 
justly condemned, then he was not led off by his Maker 
under the influence of decrees, motives of the Lord's 
ordering, and impurity infused into him to disorder his soul, 
but his action, which proved ruinous, was taken with the 
very same purity which the Creator gave him at first. From 
that very stand he took the wrong step. But necessitarians 
cannot see how there could be any quality in action which 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 333 

could be sinful, without some sinful propensity in the heart 
going before to give quality to the action ; and in assuming 
that there was, they make God the author of sin. If it is 
mysterious that man should sin without being influenced by 
impurity in his heart, it cannot be so great a mystery as the 
scheme of making God the author of sin, and still hold man 
responsible and justly liable to punishment, when he only 
did his Maker's will. And as necessitarians readily believe 
mysteries, they ought not to complain of what is mysterious, 
and especially when it accords with the Word of God. In 
finding the quality of an action, we are not first to go to the 
heart of the actor and search his moral sensibilities, but to 
the rule of action, to learn what it requires, and then to the 
heart or soul, to see if the agent is properly qualified; 
whether he is a competent agent, having all the prerequisites 
of responsibility. These all being right, we conclude that he 
ought to obey God. 

I shall here notice the second part of agency, or the 
sinner's return to God, from whom he had revolted. In doing 
this, I shall still keep a firm hold upon man's moral agency. 
Some have supposed that man lost the freedom of his will by 
the fall ; but I shall take the position that he lost nothing of 
his freedom, but is as competent an agent since the fall as 
before, and fully as capable of complying with whatever his 
Maker requires of him as if he were free from pollution. In 
taking this position, I shall deny nothing of man's depravity, 
but admit all the Word of God teaches concerning it. For 
as God did not give man an impure heart before he went off, 
so he does not give him a pure heart, either in whole or in 
part, in order that he may return. For the plan of recovery 
was wisely adapted to the case as it was; it was provided for 
fallen beings, who are still treated as responsible. All those, 
however, who advocate the doctrine of absolute necessity, 
the divine decrees, and a partial atonement, hold that none 
can come back to God unless they be first regenerated. 
Their position is, that man could not at first depart from 
God until he was in some respects disaffected and impure in 
his heart, and on the other hand, he cannot return unless he is 
first renewed in his heart and affections. In other words, God 



334 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

will not accept of any one who does not seek him with pure 
affections, and in love to him. If we admit their premise, 
we are compelled to admit their conclusions. If we can only 
come to the Lord with acceptance from love to him, it must 
be evident to all that no one does love God in the true sense 
before he is born of the Spirit. Adam had evil or pollution 
in his heart before he departed, and we must have a new 
heart before we can return — this is the premise, or platform 
of necessity. And as I have controverted it in the first case, 
I shall do it in the second, and throughout the entire course 
of the argument. Man went off without being first impure 
in his heart, and he must come back with just such a heart 
as he now has, that it may be made pure. It is not a pure 
heart which loves God, which influences man to come to 
God, but he comes that God may have mercy on him, and 
abundantly pardon. It is not a principle of life in his heart 
which brings the sinner to Christ, but he comes to Christ 
that he may have life. But it is often said that we sinners 
cannot come to Christ unless the Father draw us. That is 
true; but the Lord complained of certain Jews, who, having 
been drawn, did not come to him that they might have life, 
for he says: "And ye will not come to me that ye might 
have life." Now, it must be manifest that if they could not 
come unless they were drawn, that Christ could not justly 
complain of them for not coming, unless he had first drawn 
them, according to the full meaning of that word. Calvinists 
can only understand the word draw to mean an effectual, 
irresistible draw, or call, in correlation with their scheme of 
sovereign election, which conflicts with what Christ charged 
against the Jews when he said, " Ye will not come to me 
that ye might have life." Let us then take the position that 
they had just all that influence provided in such cases in the 
remedial system. But all that was not a new heart ; it was 
not life, but it was necessary for them to come to Christ that 
they might have life, and they never could attain it unless 
they did come. If none can come to Christ for his blessing, 
except such as have hearts to love God, how, or on what 
conditions are such persons to obtain new hearts rightly to 
approach the Lord? If there is no condition on which a 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 335 

new heart is promised, then surely there can be no crime in 
making no efforts. But we are informed in the Word of 
God that sinners are to strive to enter in at the straight gate. 
God calls upon sinners to repent and believe, to strive, and 
seek, and pray. But of what avail will it be if it be impos- 
sible to find favor with the Lord, unless the heart be first 
regenerated? We must delay, and wait, until the Lord gives 
a pure heart. Whether a new heart or any thing else be 
required of us, there must be conditions appointed to suit 
our agency; it must be possible for us to comply with the 
conditions, or we cannot be blamed for non-compliance. 
The condition of eternal life is faith in Christ, and not a pure 
heart. If we can know with certainty that the plan of salva- 
tion was devised for sinners, we may be certain of its 
adaptation to their case. And surely no one has any just 
ground to suppose that sinners cannot come to the Lord in 
all their sins and guilt when he calls them. He does call 
them to come to him, to look unto him from the ends of the 
earth — all this that they may be saved. Holiness is certainly 
the qualification for admittance into heaven, but is holiness 
either in whole or in part, a qualification to come to Christ 
for saving grace ? Certainly not. As well might it be said, 
holiness in man was the moving cause of God's love to the 
world, and of the device of the plan of recovery through 
Jesus Christ. If there was nothing good in us which first 
moved the divine compassion towards us in the device of the 
plan of salvation by grace, then surely the same mind is not 
moved to accept sinners because they love him, nor is there 
any thing required of them in the way of love or purity. 
All the fitness God requires, is to be a polluted sinner and to 
feel it, and be willing to have life as a gift from the Lord 
who offered it. Sinners can come to Christ before they are 
changed ; they can accept Christ in their sins, for the remedy 
was provided for them and adapted to their wants in all 
things, and Christ is the sinners' Saviour. " He came not to 
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." How con- 
venient it is for those who assume that God had an elect 
number from eternity, whose salvation was unalterably 
secured, to suppose that these are the Lord's people spoken 



336 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of, and that lie will make them all willing, and bring them 
to Christ by an effectual call. But we learn from the Word 
of God that Christians who love God are called his people, 
and they follow the Saviour whithersoever he goeth. But 
sinners are not his people in the same sense, though " all 
souls are his, and the soul that sinneth shall die." I can 
find nothing in all the wide range of revelation, that even 
squints at the notion as true, that sinners cannot come to 
Christ, or that he requires any kind of good and pure 
affections as a prerequisite to either come to Christ, or to 
find a read}^ acceptance with him. For all must see that 
if none can come and accept of the Lord's free grace without 
a special call, that no sinner can be justly blamed for not 
coming who never has that call given him. The very idea is 
to my mind most preposterous, that God failed to adapt the 
plan of recovery to this world of sinners, so as to leave them 
without excuse, that none can come with acceptance unless 
they are specially called, and that God calls some and not 
others, and then condemns the disobedient for not doing that 
which, according to the position, was impossible. The 
question of agency only has to do with the condition which 
God has appointed and made obligatory upon the redeemed 
race, and that condition is faith in Christ. All who ever 
have gone to heaven have gone there through Christ, and by 
faith in his name, and all who ever will reach that place in 
time to come, must travel in the same way. Faith is every- 
where spoken of in tne Bible as the only condition of 
salvation with adults. Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Peter, Paul, 
and all others, obtained salvation by faith in Christ, who are 
spoken of as good people, and whether they believed by 
natural or moral ability, or both, it is spoken of as an act of 
their own heart. For Paul says, " With the heart man 
believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession 
is made unto salvation." But' I will not dwell on faith,* 
only I will say, that all who make it the fruit of a new heart 
in all cases, hold to the following doctrines : Eternal decrees, 
part of the race ordained to life, and part to death ; partial 
atonement, partial operations of the Spirit; the scheme of 
* See Lecture on Faith in Christ. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 337 

absolute necessity, that man sinned under the superintending 
and controling influence of Providence — his heart was made 
impure in such a sense that he sinned necessarily ; that all 
those who come back to God are first regenerated and made 
to come from love to him, under the influence of necessity ; 
that faith is the gift of God, unconditionally wrought in the 
heart by the Spirit; that repentance and faith are evangelical 
graces, or fruits of regeneration, or the Spirit ; that man has 
natural ability to return to the Lord, but no moral ability; 
that moral ability is restored in regeneration, at which time 
faith is given ; that man is responsible on the ground of 
natural ability ; and finally, that everything in the universe 
takes place under the influence of necessity, as absolute as 
the laws of gravitation, or fate itself. Hence, they are 
consistent with themselves, in holding that God influenced 
men and angels to sin ; but are inconsistent in so far as they 
claim to hold men or angels responsible for their sins. We 
learn from the Word of God that man was made in the 
Divine likeness; he was pure, but he sinned and died. Here 
is an effect produced, it is said ; but what produced it ? If 
causes and effects are connected, and the one reveals the 
character of the other, when sin results from the action of a 
being bearing the image of God, shall we say that some 
impurity in the actor was the efficient cause of wrong 
action? This would be nothing less than a contradiction of 
divine truth. Shall we then conclude that a power behind 
the throne influenced man to sin by the implantation of a 
rebellious principle in his heart, or the infusion of impurity? 
This would be nothing short of blasphemy, as it would make 
God the author of sin, as all must see. Therefore, if man 
became corrupt after the wrong action, and not before, it is 
next to certain that we can trace his depravity of heart to no 
other cause than his own wrong action of soul, called will. 
The action was plainly forbidden by the Lord, and nothing 
can be plainer than that the Lord would inflict some penalty 
on the actor. This he did do. But what was it? Was it 
the death of his body directly? No; he lost the likeness of 
God — he became polluted and guilty. If, therefore, President 
Edwards and others of that school, cannot see how such 



338 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

action could have any moral quality in the absence of 
impurity of heart going before, without making God the 
efficient agent of it by motive or otherwise, he and they must 
learn it from the Bible and the nature of free moral agency, 
and not from their philosophy. Reason can well say that 
God, who is holy, could not be the author of sin, and if 
man under trial could not be free and responsible in such a 
sense and degree as to produce the effect, then it could not 
exist. For the evil lies between God, the tempter, and man. 
The tempter could not pollute man's heart before he sinned, 
and God did not ; therefore, I conclude that man was his 
own destroyer, as the Bible says. We find him corrupt after 
the action, but not before. Now, under the remedial system, 
we find the same responsible creature who was polluted by 
the fall regenerated, his heart is pure, he loves God. How 
was this brought about ? Did he change his own heart ? All 
will, with one consent, answer no. God alone could work 
the mighty change. But what was the process? Here we 
shall see the same family of errors kept up in the sinner's 
return to the Lord, as when he went off. He went off with 
a bad heart, and he can only return with a good one. His 
heart must be first regenerated, and embrace the Saviour 
with pure affections. But I have shown that the starting 
point is not true; man did not sin because his heart was 
corrupt, nor does the scheme of mercy make it necessary 
that it should be made pure before he can accept justifying 
and regenerating grace. God calls upon sinners to " look 
and be saved ; to repent and believe." And forasmuch as the 
moral quality of the heart was not regarded in the fall, it is 
not regarded in the return. The quality of the heart and 
that of the will may be as opposite, as the poles, notwith- 
standing Edwards rules the will by the affections of the soul. 
He says: "The will is as the greatest good." God says: 
"Look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved; 
for I am God, and beside me there is none else/' And 
again : " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he 
will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will 
abundantly pardon." Sinners, unpardoned and unregenerate, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 339 

are called to come, and are expected to come, and God will 
condemn them if they do not. I maintain that the Word of 
God nowhere intimates that regeneration in any degree, is a 
prerequisite to repentance and faith in Christ, except in real 
children of God, about whom there is no controversy. In 
all cases where sinners are called upon to come to Christ, 
pardon and regeneration, or a new heart, are promised, and 
follow after the acceptance. If God should require a good 
heart first, then all must continue to reject him until such 
time as he gives it upon sovereign principles, and then such 
as are changed will necessarily come, and all others must, of 
necessity, continue to reject salvation. But why should any 
one suppose that a corrupt sinner cannot accept of Christ 
and his grace, when the tender is made in deed and in truth ? 
Is it because the carnal mind is said to be enmity against 
God, not subject to his law ? But this can be no reason why 
it cannot submit to the plan of free grace, that it may be 
changed and made subject to the law. If salvation were by 
the deeds of the law, then the heart ought to be subject to it 
in the outset, but if it is by grace, then the vilest sinner can 
by the light of the Holy Spirit and his reproofs, accept of it 
as God requires him to do. How it is possible for any one to 
suppose that man could be responsible under the remedial 
system, and hold the following sentiments of President 
Edwards, I cannot conceive. He says : " To suppose that 
God has made any positive promises of salvation, or grace, 
or any saving assistance, or any spiritual benefits whatever, 
to any desires, prayers, endeavors, striving, or obedience of 
those who hitherto have no true virtue or holiness in their 
hearts; though we should suppose all the sincerity, and the 
utmost degree of endeavor, that is possible to be in a person 
without holiness." Again : " For if men do what they can, 
unless their so doing be from some good principle, disposi- 
tion, or exercise of heart, some virtuous inclination or act 
of the will ; their so doing what they can, is in some respects 
not a whit better than if they did nothing." — Edwards on The 
Will, page 109. This sentiment of Edward's cuts off all efforts 
on the part of the unregenerate, and discourages all prayers and 
'striving, though Christ has commanded such to pray and 



340 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

strive; it is as if they did nothing, unless it be done from 
some principle of holiness in the heart. The grace of God is 
not promised to the sinner, nor any assistance whatever. 
Surely, such was not the teachings of Jesus Christ and his 
apostles ; none of them ever taught anything like it. Where 
in all the wide range of God's pure Word, is there any thing 
like what is said above, that a sinner, however he may strive 
to come to Christ as lie has commanded, might as well sit 
still, or continue in his disobedience and rebellion against 
God? It is truly said in the Scriptures, "Make the tree 
good and the fruit will be good." But this has no reference 
to the sinner's acceptance of Christ and his saving grace, but 
Christian obedience or fruit. Christ requires no holiness of 
heart in order to come unto him, and the proof is all on the 
other side, for he receiveth sinners. He calls them to come, 
and when they come they are accepted and pardoned. The 
act of coming is their own, and is right, because he has 
commanded it. It is a gospel command, and is acceptable 
with him as gospel obedience. I can see no reason why God 
could not accept of an impure, fallen being, when he did love 
such and gave his Son 'for them, nor can I see any thing in 
the character of God which would make it inconsistent for 
him to do so. He does not accept of such as fit for heaven, but 
as objects of mercy and pardon. And surely if condemned 
sinners are such, they are acceptable with the Lord when 
they feel their need and come with the free choice of the 
will, and the full determination of the mind. But if we 
allow Edwards and others to beg, in this respect, what all of 
them have failed to prove, and forever must, we may give 
up all responsibility and bow to necessity with clear con- 
sciences. But there is in man a consciousness of responsi- 
bility, placed there by the God of nature and righteousness, 
which will speak the truth and declare man's freedom of soul 
in despite of all that man can say or necessity can do. The 
thing which Edwards begs is clearly this : that God requires 
of all men who would come to Christ for pardon to come 
with the pure affections of a holy heart, and he brings in a 
long course of reasoning on cause and effect, and his ad 
infinitum smoke in relation to the determination of man's 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 341 

will, and then begs the question without proof from the 
Bible, and assumes that God has not promised, and will not 
accept of sinners as objects of saving grace, until he has first 
necessitated them by renewing their hearts. But what 
would such a position do in the case of Adam, when he sinned 
with a pure heart — the quality of the action of the will being 
in the heart? What could it do but assume that God polluted 
man's heart, and tell us that he did it so as not to be the 
author of sin ? But how could he do it and not be the author 
of the effect? The scheme again assumes that God has two 
distinct and opposite wills, the revealed and the secret; the 
revealed will is opposed to all sin and forbids it, but the 
secret will of God has willed all the sius of men and devils 
into existence in the universe. What a representation of the 
holy God! In a word, it is as true that the one only living 
and true God is two independent Gods as that he has two 
conflicting wills. And the scheme of necessity has missed 
the agency of both God and man, and the consequence in 
part is two wills in God, and then to hold man as a machine, 
and yet responsible for what God willed he should and was 
compelled to to. But conscience speaks and says I have 
sinned against the will of God, and so says the Bible. 

Then to sum up the whole of what has been said on moral 
agency, it may be said here that man sinned in that he did 
what his Lord had forbidden, which constituted the evil, and 
the death threatened followed as the penalty, which God 
could righteously inflict. In the next place, God commands 
faith by the gospel — faith in Christ, and promises life eternal 
to the sinner on that condition, and the blessing follows as 
the gift of God ; and while the gift follows the act of the free 
choice of man, the gift is all of grace as fully as if the 
change had preceeded the act of faith. The act of faith is 
not meritorious, but it is right, forasmuch as it is God's 
command in the gospel. The first was sin because it was a 
violation of law ; the act of faith is right because it is what 
God requires in the plan of recovery. And in testimony 
of these facts we have the Word of God and our own con- 
sciousness of our responsibility. 



342 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



LECTURE XVIII.— FREEDOM OF THE WILL. 



The will lias much to do with all that God has commanded 
and spoken for the benefit of mankind. Whenever laws 
and precepts are given and obedience required, promises 
made or judgments threatened, the will is more or less 
involved. The will and its freedom is in some way connected 
with nearly every controverted point in the system of the- 
ology. Bat after all that has been said, men are not yet 
satisfied, but are still inclined to think and say more, and 
perhaps the diversity of opinion among men is as great now 
as at any former time. This, however, is no good reason 
why thought and speech in relation to this subject should cease 
and sit down in despair. 

The governor of the universe has evidently regarded and 
treated man as a responsible being, and in every way has 
thrown the full weight of responsibility upon the will. Men 
of well balanced minds, of different schools, are generally 
agreed that man is so far responsible as to be praise- or 
blameworthy, and consequently a proper subject of reward or 
punishment, and that the wi]l must in some degree be free 
in its action. Here it may be safely assumed that the will is 
either morally free or it is not free. That responsibility in the 
divine government is in some way graduated by the amount 
of free volition in the governed, will barely admit of contro- 
versy. In this place we may very briefly define our position 
in relation to the moral agency of man and the freedom of 
the will. It is the soul's free power in choosing 01 refusing, 
or in choosing one thing in preference to another or all other 
things ; and the same freedom of will which man has at one 
time he has at all times, with no other change except in rela- 
tion to enlargement of capacity. It may be well to remark 
in this place that we do not claim for the will any ability to 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 343 

do works or acts of merit, such as would righteously entitle 
the doer to eternal life, but that ability and freedom which 
can accept good from the hand of God just as he sees fit to 
offer it; for he certainly knows our ability better than we do, 
and it is rashness to say that we cannot accept when God 
makes the tender and so declares it with his own mouth. 
To say that man has lost the ability to do good and to keep 
the law which he had before he fell, is a good common- 
sense view of immutable truth; but to suppose that he has 
less freedom and ability now than he had then, to accept 
of whatever the God of wisdom and grace may see fit to 
tender for his acceptance, is both untrue and hasty and a 
quibble with the doings and demonstrations of Jehovah 
himself. The only reason, as I conceive, why man fell in 
Eden was that he had responsible freedom, and if 
he had lost that when he fell, as some have supposed, he 
would have lost all guilt and remorse at the same time. 
Nor can there be any other reason assigned why fallen man 
cannot rise to the favor of God and heaven by the exercise of 
the same free volition *which plunged him into ruin, other 
than that he will not, when God addresses the remedy to his 
case as he knows how to do it, and then offers it with oaths 
and promises for his acceptance. We can see nothing to 
prevent even satan himself from accepting a blessing from 
the hand of God, provided he were to adapt it to his case, 
and then make such a godlike tender of it as he makes of 
life to man. If man has no moral ability to accept gospel 
blessings, he has no ability of any kind which has anything 
to do with the plan of free grace, for surely no man who is 
not pressed out of measure for something to prop up his 
cherished dogma, will even pretend that natural ability, 
apart from moral ability, has anything to do in the way 
of accepting the great remedial system. Then why lug in 
natural ability or the want of it in the argument, as Mr. 
Edwards has done, as will be shown in due time? The 
position is fairly taken here, that the remedy which God 
provided for man and tenders to him for his acceptance was 
adapted to him as he is now, since the fall, and not as he was 
before it. And if God requires him to accept it, and he 



344 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

lacks either moral or natural ability, then the remedy was 
not adapted to the case, nor can it be until it is brought 
down to man in his fallen condition, or he raised up to where 
the remedy is offered. If the remedial system was provided 
with the design of requiring anything of man, no matter 
what, and was well adapted to the case in hand, it is worse 
than folly to allege any want of ability as an excuse for man, 
on the one hand, and a reproach upon God on the other; for 
if there be anything wanting in the way of ability, God 
will give that in the way of adapting the remedy to the case. 
The remedy was provided for beings who were in need of the 
influence of the Holy Spirit, and that is vouchsafed, and 
surely if renovation of heart was necessary in order to 
the requisite ability to accepfthe gospel, then, in that event, 
the remedy would not be adapted to the case until all hearts 
be first changed, and surely God would make no tender 
of the gospel until he first changed mens' hearts. Those who 
oppose the free action and choice of the will of man are 
compelled to admit such freedom of will and such adaptation 
of the plan as will throw the full weight of responsibility 
upon the creature, and show at once that he, in rejecting the 
tenders of mercy, is his own self-destroyer. We cannot 
conceive of any medium between a full and complete adapta- 
tion of the plan of grace to the creature, and none. 
The adaptation must be full or it is no adaptation at all, 
and the will must possess that freedom which makes it fully 
competent to elect or reject offered mercy, or it has just no 
power of free choice at all, which makes it either praise- or 
blameworthy. And surely nothing is gained ,to the honor 
of God and the praise of free grace by lessening and detract- 
ing from free will. For it must be manifest to the most 
ordinary comprehension, that just in the same proportion 
that the will is rendered incompetent to accept the offeree! 
remedy, guilt is removed from the creature and the blame, 
whatever it may be, attaches to the creator. To ascribe 
to the will self-determining ability in relation to offered 
mercy, has so alarmed some minds that they have taken 
a bold stand against it, and allow to the will no more free- 
dom and responsibility than a windmill has. Mr. Edwards, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 345 

in his treaties on the will, has assumed that the will cannot 
possess self-determining power, and in his argument against 
it he has taken the position that if the will has self-deter- 
mining power it must be both cause and effect, and that one 
free act must be the antecedent to another free act, and so on 
in an endless series, which he thinks to be impossible. See 
page 21 — " If the freedom of the will consists in this, that it 
has itself and its own actions under its command and direc- 
tion, and its own "volitions are determined by itself, it will 
follow that every free volition arises from another antecedent 
volition directing and commanding that, and if that direct- 
ing volition be also free, in that also the will is determined; 
that is to say, that directing volition is determined by another 
going before that, and so on until we come to the first 
Volition in the whole series." The whole of the argument 
against the self-acting, determining power of the will in this 
place is substantially this : He supposes the will never can 
begin to be active unless it was so from eternity — that one free 
volition must be the cause of another or there can be no 
self-determining power in the will. The unfairness of his 
deduction is owing to the unsoundness of his assumed pre- 
mise. He appears to assume, in his argument against the 
self-determining power of the will, what alone is true of inert 
matter or of nonentity. It is true of matter that it cannot 
produce action in itself, nor can nothing produce something; 
consequently it is self-evident that matter must be acted 
upon or it can have no action, nor can it exist by self-produc- 
tion, but must have an antecedent producing cause. But who 
will claim any regard to his assumption that God could not and 
did not make man with a self-acting, voluntary soul, free 
from over-powering restraint and constraint, both when he 
sinned and fell, and also in his return to God, by a voluntary 
acceptance of the well-adapted remedy? Nothing can be 
plainer than if God tested man's agency at first, he made him 
in view of trial, and if he now holds him responsible in 
view of the gospel remedy, he places him upon as fair ground 
for a full and fair test of his agency, where evidently the 
eternal salvation of his soul is hinged upon the action of his 
will, as he had at first, before he fell. And as man was in 
23 






346 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

every way adapted to the trial which was given him then, 
so he is suited to the plan of recovery now, and the plan is in 
every way adapted to him, and his responsibility is pre- 
cisely equal to his freedom and ability to accept or reject. 
That there may neither he ground for misapprehension or 
misrepresentation in this place, let it be distinctly understood 
that all that measure of divine influence which man's condi- 
tion requires is so connected with the plan of recovery as to 
be a vital element of it, and without which it would have 
no adaptation to the case and be no plan of recovery for 
man. And it is moreover asserted here, that if man was 
unable to accept the remedial system before his heart is 
renewed by divine grace (which is not admitted), in that 
case it is claimed for the plau, and for the honor of its 
author, that this too will be secured to all men. For as no 
man, in view of that fact, could accept without renovation, 
so no one could reject it, not being regenerated first, any 
more than fallen angels, for whom it was not designed. 
Fallen angels will doubtless suffer the vengeance of eternal 
lire, but not for rejecting salvation through Christ. Never- 
theless, it would be as righteous a condemnation for them to 
suffer in hell for rejecting Christ, who never died to redeem 
them and never was tendered to them, as for sinners of the 
race of man who only were mocked with a tender of the 
remedy, while acceptance was as impossible to them as to 
satan. Nor is the matter bettered in the least by the 
assumption that the impossibility is moral and not natural. 
It can make no difference in fact whether the impossibility 
be called by one name or another, it must just be such 
as to exclude all from heaven upon whom it lies, and make 
their damnation infallibly certain, and that too without 
remedy. Mr. Edwards, in speaking of the will, says: "It 
must be true in some sense that the will always is as the 
greatest apparent good is." — Page 4. He holds it to be 
under the influence of what he is pleased to call moral neces- 
sity, of which he says, page 9 : " Here I might say that a 
thing is said to be necessary when it must be and cannot be 
otherwise." Same page : " A thing is said to be necessary 
when we cannot help it, let us do what we will. So anything 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 347 

is said to be impossible to us when we would do it, or would 
have it brought to pass, and endeavor it, or at least may be 
supposed to desire and seek it, and all our desires and 
endeavors are or would be vain." True, he makes a distinc- 
tion between natural and moral necessity, but he says: 
"Moral necessity may be as absolute as natural necessity." — 
Page 14. Same page: "I suppose that necessity which is 
called natural, in distinction from moral necessity, is so 
called because mere nature, as the word is vulgarly used, is 
concerned without anything of choice. The word nature is 
often used in opposition to choice, not because nature has 
indeed never any hand in our choice," etc. The distinction 
which Mr. Edwards makes between natural and moral neces- 
sity, or fate, does not afford him any relief in the argument, 
for he holds the one to be as absolute as the other, and a like 
impossibility connected with each. The only difference which 
he makes is that where natural impossibility exists there can 
be neither praise nor blame ; but contends that moral impossi- 
bility admits of no excuse, and that while it is equally as irresist- 
ible as natural necessity, men are guilty and may be righteously 
condemned for their necessary and unavoidable sins. On 
page 19 he thus speaks of moral agency : " A moral agent is 
a being that is capable of those actions that have a moral 
quality, and which can properly be denominated good or 
evil in a moral sense, virtuous or vicious, commendable or 
faulty. To moral agency belongs a moral faculty, or sense 
of moral good and evil, or of such a thing as desert or 
worthiness, praise or blame, reward or punishment, and a 
capacity which an agent has of being influenced in his actions 
by moral inducements or motives exhibited to the view of 
understanding and reason, to engage to a conduct agreeable 
to the moral faculty." The above is a good definition of a 
moral agent with one exception, it lacks one vital element — 
the writer does not say that a moral agent must have the 
ability to obey or yield compliance with either law or gospel. 
Though he says a moral agent is capable of such actions as 
have a moral quality, he manifestly does not believe that he 
can act contrary to the fated, necessitated will any more 
than a lump of clay in the potter's hands could act contrary 



348 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

to the will of the potter who holds it and moulds it after his 
own will. The main reason assigned why an action, fated 
by natural necessity, can have no praise or blame attached to 
it is, that there is no choice in the actor. Let this be under- 
stood and then we shall see why he attaches crime to the 
action of a moral agent while he excuses the other case. 
" A moral agent is possessed of a moral faculty, and is capa- 
ble of those actions that have a moral quality, and which 
can properly be denominated good or evil in a moral sense, 
having a capacity of being influenced by moral inducements or 
motives exhibited to the view of the understanding and reason 
to engage to a conduct agreeable to the moral faculty." 
And we are informed that such moral agent is praise- or 
blameworthy and justly liable to reward or punishment. 
But in the whole course of his reasoning Mr. Edwards con- 
tends that the will of such moral agent, with his moral fac- 
ulty and capacity, is fated in his will by moral necessity, 
which he himself says " may be as absolute as natural neces- 
sity." It does appear that if there is any good reason why 
a natural agent is free from blame, there is the same good 
reason why the moral agent should not be condemned, for 
while the one has a moral faculty and the other has none, the 
actions of both are alike fated. Mr. Edwards does wholly 
excuse the natural agent — page 96: "And as natural impos- 
sibility wholly excuses and excludes all blame, so the nearer 
the difficulty approaches to impossibility, still the nearer a 
person is to blamelessness in proportion to that approach." 
Here natural impossibility wholly excuses from blame. On 
page 102, where the author speaks of moral inability of all 
shades, he says: "If by being equally unable be meant 
as really unable, then so far as the inability is merely moral, 
it is true the will, in every instance, acts by moral neces- 
sity and is morally unable to act otherwise, as truly and 
properly in one case as another." We have seen that in all 
cases of moral necessity it is impossible for the will to act 
otherwise than it does, and the impossibility, though denomi- 
nated moral, is just as absolute as if it were natural. If, 
therefore, the impossibilities in both cases are equal, surely 
he acts in both are alike blameless. But we have only 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 349 

to take another step and we shall see that Mr. Edwards 
locates the necessitating cause of moral agents in the will — 
it is opposed to God and totally inclined to disobey him. 
But how did the will become aversed to God and all good, 
and happen to be thus necessitated? Was it God or man 
that necessitated it? Mr. Edwards informs us that God 
did it all. He introduced moral evil, not for its sake, but for 
the good that would result from it. Hence, if the will is 
necessitated now, being corrupt and opposed to God, it was 
so from the beginning, and all the freedom it ever had it has 
now, for it acted under an absolute decree at first and it acts 
so still, and it began under a great scheme of necessity and 
will continue under it forever. This view of the subject 
presents man about as responsible and as blameworthy as a 
storm of wind which destroys a ship at sea. Page 178 he 
says : " The certain truth of these doctrines concerning God's 
eternal purposes will follow from what was just now observed 
concerning God's universal providence, and it infallibly 
follows from what has been proved that God orders all 
events, and the volitions of moral agents, among others, by 
such a decisive disposal that the events are infallibly con- 
nected with his disposal." " For if God disposes all events 
so that the infallible existence of the events is decided by his 
providence, then he, doubtless, thus orders and decides things 
knowingly and on design." And on page 165 he says : " It is 
not of a bad tendency for the Supreme Being thus to order and 
permit that moral evil to be, which it is best should come to 
pass ; for that it is of good tendency is the very thing supposed 
in the point now in question." Page 157 : " That it is most 
certainly so that God is in such a manner the disposer 
and orderer of sin is evident, if any credit is to be given to 
the Scriptures, as well as because it is impossible in the 
nature of things to be otherwise." If, as Mr. Edwards con- 
tends, the will of man is necessitated by the ordering of the 
Supreme Being, and the volitions of all moral agents are 
directed and controlled by him with infallible certainty, and 
all for the accomplishment of good, then neither is man nor 
any other created intelligence entitled to any praise or justly 
chargeable with crime. He introduces God, the sovereign 



350 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of the universe, as the introducer of all sins, and, of course, 
the corrupter of devils and men; and yet he would have 
them to be responsible because they are moral agents, not- 
withstanding God has necessitated their wills. And to 
prove, as he supposes, from analogy, that man may be a 
repsonsible moral agent, and at the same time act under 
absolute necessity, he introduces the Almighty a's an instance 
where the will was necessitated and eternally must be, and 
yet he is worthy of praise. But does he say that God could 
possibly do anything blameworthy ? Certainly not ; though 
he ordered and absolutely introduced all sin by decrees and a 
sovereign control of all wills, yet this was all praiseworthy 
in him, because it is impossible for him to do wrong. How, 
then, could man do wrong if his will and all his acts are 
ordered and willed by one who could by no possibility do 
wrong? Surely he could no more sin than God himself, for 
man's will is but the carrying out of the divine will. The 
will of God can only act in one way, and that must neces- 
sarily be in the way of holiness. Man can never act contrary 
to the decrees and will of God, according to the position 
of Mr. Edwards, and how can he be blamed for sin any more 
than his Lord? The truth is, Mr. Edwards takes some 
positions in his treaties on the will which are exceedingly 
perilous to the entire argument. He undertakes to prove 
that while man's will is necessitated, his acts may be praise- 
or blameworthy, from the fact that Jehovah's will is neces- 
sarily holy, and yet his acts are all praiseworthy. It will, 
however, be borne in mind that he does not say that this 
necessitated will could possibly be blameworthy, for there 
could be no choice with God whether he would do right 
or wrong, for he must necessarily and immutably do right. 
But in his definition of a moral agent, who is responsible, 
Mr. Edwards speaks of choice between good and evil, and 
not only that a moral agent may be praiseworthy, but he 
must be liable to blame and to punishment. God is not 
liable to blame nor to punishment, for his acts all originate 
from the essential necessity of his nature, and his is the only 
necessary will in the universe, and that must be one reason 
why he cannot do wrong. This being the main reason why 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 351 

God cannot do wrong, the very reason why man could and 
did sin is, that Mr. Edwards is totally wrong as to man's 
will being necessitated — it was not necessitated before the 
fall, nor is it now, for if it had been so he never would have 
sinned and fell. 

Whenever we find a necessitated will before a fair trial 
and a free choice, we certainly find an irresponsible will, 
and one that never can be justly blamed, however much it 
may be entitled to praise. The very reason which Mr. 
Edwards w T ould assign why God cannot sin or do wrong may 
be safely urged against the possibility of sin by any and all 
wills in the universe, being placed under an absolute neces- 
sity by the sovereign Lord of the universe; and if any such 
should be punished it must be for doing the will of God, 
according to Mr. Edward's scheme of necessity. Such wills 
as are placed under an absolute necessity by creation, must 
be under all the necessity which the decrees of God and his 
will could place them. This necessity is both a moral and 
natural necessity, for God has incorporated natural necessity 
in the very natures of all such, and they are nature-bound, 
decree-bound, and bound by a moral necessity to do precisely 
as they do. Now, wherein does a man's free volition differ 
from that of clay in the hands of a potter, or that of a 
beast ? According to Mr. Edwards, if there is any difference, 
the beast is the more responsible being, forasmuch as it is 
only fated by one necessity and man is fated by two. God 
has ordained some men to act necessarily in the way to 
heaven, while he has doomed others to act necessarily in 
the way to hell. But why did Mr. Edwards resort to the 
scheme of necessity, and take his stand against the free 
moral agency of man, and the free, voluntary choice of the 
will, the self-determining power of the soul? Because his 
opinions on decrees and unconditional election and reproba- 
tion have placed him there, as it does all others who hold 
like opinions ; and in his effort to sustain his opinions on 
decrees he must needs bring his theological artillery to bear 
upon the freedom of the will, and bind it in the chains of 
irresistable necessity. But we must see how he will have 
the will of man moved by motive power, the elect in the 



352 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

way to heaven and the non-elect in the road to perdition. As 
all men, since the fall, are, in their hearts, opposed to God, 
and do not love him, and cannot accept of Christ from pure 
love to him in their hearts, Calvinists have supposed that 
the heart must first be renovated and caused to love Christ, 
that there may be an affinity between him and the heart. 
Hence, as it is the soul that makes the choice by the action 
of the will, and the will is inclined to choose its like, in 
order that the elect may choose Christ, the Holy Spirit, upon 
sovereign principles, renews the will, then the motive being 
presented, it is embraced at once with the pure affections 
of love. But this act is one of necessity, and all who are 
regenerated necessarily believe in Christ and are saved, but 
such as are not, necessarily reject him and are sent to per- 
dition. 

Mr. Edwards says, page 108 : " God has made no prom- 
ises of salvation, or grace, or any saving assistance, or 
any spiritual benefit whatever, to any desires, prayers, 
endeavors, striving, or obedience of those who hitherto have 
no true virtue or holiness in their hearts, though we should 
suppose all the sincerity and the utmost degree of endeavor 
that is possible to be in a person without holiness." " Some 
object against God's requiring, as the condition of salvation, 
those holy exercises which are the result of a supernatural 
renovation, such as a supreme respect for Christ, love to 
God, loving holiness for its own sake," etc. According to 
Mr. Edwards, and all Calvinists, holiness of heart and true 
love to Christ are prerequisites to the acceptance of the 
remedial system, and enter into the very nature of the con- 
dition. of salvation. It is assumed "that God has made no 
promises of any assistance or saving benefits whatsoever to any 
of the race whose hearts are not previously holy, however 
sincerely and ardently they may pray and strive and seek; 
all will be unavailing before the heart is renovated and made 
holy." This antecedent holiness, w T e are told, God requires 
as the condition of salvation, and that there is no condition at 
all on which this antecedent holiness or any other saving benefit 
is promised or will be given. It is as plain as that two 
and two make four that this Calvinistic scheme denies and 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 6bd 

repudiates all conditions whatsoever, as having any connec- 
tion with the plan, or bearing on man's salvation. What 
is to he done in this case, or what can be done but to await 
until God regenerates the heart ? This is unconditional 
salvation throughout. God himself performs the condition 
for the elect, and all warnings, and calls, and invitations, and 
promises are unmeaning, useless, and vain, according to this 
scheme. The position is that God will change and save all 
the elect; the others he will not change, but pass them by> 
and finally send them to perdition for their wilful rejection 
of the Son of God! This surely is not what God's Word 
teaches, nor what Christ and his apostles preached, but the 
very opposite; it is an unwarrantable assumption against the 
Scriptures of divine truth throughout. Where in the Word 
of God may it be found that a sinner's heart must be 
changed and made holy before it is possible for him to 
believe in Christ, and before God calls upon him to do so ? 
Certainly nowhere. Regeneration and a holy heart that 
loves God is the thing itself — it is salvation and not the con- 
dition of salvation, as Mr. Edwards has it. Strange logic 
and bad divinity, that salvation is the condition of itself, 
or rather there is no condition upon which God has hinged 
anything that relates to salvation ! 

Man must be held responsible in relation to the salvation 
of his soul. The Word of God teaches it, and man must be 
made to feel it with all its weight : " Strive to enter in at the 
straight gate." "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved." " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the 
Lord and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God for 
he will abundantly pardon." — Luke xin. 24; Acts xvi. 31; 
Isaiah lv. 7. The holiness of God and the purity of his law 
require the heart to be pure and to love God in order to 
admittance into heaven; but nowhere in the Word of God 
can we find that the same purity of heart and love to God are 
prerequisites to, and enter into, the condition of salvation 
through the gospel plan. The plan appears to be plainly 
this : Divine influence, then repentance and faith, then jus- 
tification, and then renovation of the heart, and the love of 



354 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

God shed into the heart by the Holy Spirit. But Calvinism 
says renovation first, and the love of God in the heart, then 
repentance and faith, then justification ; from which it is seen 
that man's salvation is in no way suspended upon his agency ; 
it has nothing to do in the way of accepting salvation, which 
is passively received, like the impressions upon the canvas 
by the hand of the artist. Truly it is written, " without me ye 
can do nothing;" "that no man can come unto me except 
the Father which hath sent me draw him," which fully 
demonstrates that we are all dependent upon Christ and the 
Holy Spirit for salvation. Bat it by no means disproves that 
man must come to Christ with the free exercise of his own 
volition before renovation of heart, and that . salvation 
throughout does not hinge and depend upon this very act 
of coming. The sinner comes to Christ enlightened aud 
penitent, destitute of a new heart, and under the weight of 
condemnation, and is justified and changed after he comes, 
and not before ; and so far from his coming being the result 
of renovation, renovation never does take place in responsi- 
ble agents until they do come to Christ. "Let the wicked 
forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and 
let him return unto the Lord aud he will have mercy upon 
him, and to our God for he will abundantly pardon." Christ 
said to the Jews, " and ye will not come to me that ye might 
have life;" "For if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall 
die in your sins;" "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that 
killeth the prophets and stoneth them which art sent unto 
thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, 
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and 
ye would not! "—John v. 40, vin. 24; Matt. xxm. 37. "I, if 
I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." He was lifted 
up and does draw all men unto him. This, however, is a 
gospel drawing, and not a Calvinistic draw, for if it were 
as Calvinists suppose, all men would be saved; but being in 
conformity with the plan of salvation, and not irresistable, 
sinners have to come in the exercise of their own free voli- 
tion, or Christ will not save them. There is nothing merit- 
orious in coming to Christ, nor is there anything in the con- 
dition of salvation, as it is presented in the Word of God, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 355 

that requires the exercise of a regenerated heart to comply 
with the condition — the whole of the merit known in the 
plan lies in the ground of pardon, and is made effectual 
when the sinner's heart comes in contact with it by faith. 
Then understand that the merit is in the thing received, and 
not in the act that receives. If the merit, or any part of it, 
were in the act of coming to Christ, then we might go 
further than Mr. Edwards, or any others of his school, and 
not only contend that man must have a renewed heart that 
loves God, but that he should come in a spotless robe of his 
own into the King's presence, with a price in his hand. It 
has been assumed by those who oppose the freedom of the 
will in the reception of gospel blessings, that if it were com- 
petent for man, by the determination of his will, to come to 
Christ, then there would be some ground for boasting and 
glorying in works. This, however, is an assumption of their 
own, in keeping with their own peculiar sentiments, and not 
a legitimate deduction from the doctrine which they oppose. 
Their own doctrine is that man must come to Christ, not to 
have his heart renovated and filled with love to God, but he 
must never attempt to come, for he cannot until his heart is 
renewed first, and then he comes from pure love — with 
a good heart. The plan which they oppose, and which they 
suppose they have a thousand time demolished, is that which 
Christ so forcibly illustrated by the parable of the prodigal 
sou. The sinner has wandered far oft* from God, like the 
prodigal, and is poor and wretched and well nigh to famish, 
but while in this condition he thinks of his gracious Father — 
he comes to himself and says : " I will arise and go to my 
father, and will say unto him, ' Father, I have sinned against 
heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called 
thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.' And he 
arose and came unto his father." Then the father ran and 
met him, and embraced him, and blessed him. He did start 
in all his rags and poverty, and he did come, we are in- 
formed, and confessed his sins and begged for pardon, and 
his father forgave him and owned and blessed him. If this 
parable is to have any bearing upon this vexed question 
of agency and coming to Christ, it certainly proves that the 



356 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

coming is before pardon and a new heart. The poverty 
which the prodigal felt when he came to himself, and the 
confessions which he made from the very time he resolved to 
start, and did start, until he came to his father, are veiw much 
like the poor sinner on the borders of ruin, convinced of sin 
b} T the light of the Holy Spirit, ladened with all the weight 
of his sin and rebellion against God, but who resolves to for- 
sake his sins and go with his guilty, unpardoned, unrenewed 
soul to Christ for salvation, and who, on coming, finds peace 
in believing for the first time. 

But we do most solemnly protest against his scheme of 
decrees and necessity, and no less so against his notions of 
moral free agency, for it never can work well, being totally 
at variance with the great scheme of salvation as published 
by the voice of inspiration, and antagonistic to the moral 
administration of the righteous Arbiter of the universe. 
Although it must be admitted by Calvinism that man was 
created holy and the divine image shone brilliantly on his 
soul, it takes the position that God exterminated every 
vestige of it from that lovely creature, or made it absolutely 
necessary that he should do it himself; but whether it was 
God or the creature, it was done by virtue of an irrevocable 
decree, as absolute as fate. How the Almighty prepared the 
will of man, which was holy, for the first act of rebellion, 
we ure not informed by Calvinists. But it is a fair induction 
from the creed, and especially from Edwards on the will, 
that it was done by infusion or previously corrupting 
the will in some way, so that there might be an affinity 
between the will and the forbidden fruit; that man might 
love and long for it, and have his soul tied to it as the 
greatest good, by the mysterious yet irresistable cord of 
necessity. According to the position, he certainly was 
corrupted in his soul in some way and by some means before 
he acted in any way whatever, for, according to Mr. Ed- 
wards, if the will was holy it could have no free, self- 
determining power of action, but by another antecedent 
free act, and all the subsequent free acts determined by the 
foregoing, must be of the same kind, without any possibility 
in the actions of the will by its own volitions to change from 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 357 

the first free action. Hence, once holy, if the will is self- 
determining, it must remain holy forever, unless it he turned 
out of its course by another power superior to itself. There- 
fore, man could never sin by self-determining power, but his 
will was determined by a corrupt influence placed in it by 
creation or afterwards by infusion. In short, a thing cannot 
act contrary to itself or the absolute laws of necessity. 

The reasoning is, therefore, plainly this : Man could not 
and did not sin until God in some way corrupted his will. 
Then, under the remedial system, man's will being impure 
and averse to Gocl, and it being necessary and required in 
the condition of salvation as well as the nature of the plan, 
that there be an affinity between the holy Saviour, the object 
of faith, and the sinner's heart and will, the heart must be 
changed and made like the Saviour before the will ever can 
embrace him. The will was prepared to go off, it is pre- 
pared to come back to Gocl, and it is a machine from first to 
last, but while the machinist managed to save one part he 
ruined the other. 

We are free to state that man did not sin against God at 
first because his soul hated him and his will was impure, nor 
does he come back because he first loves him with pure 
affections. For man was pure until he resolved within his 
own soul to do what was forbidden, and that resolve was a 
self- resolve, such as is peculiar to all responsible creatures 
under trial, and just such as God had the power to give him 
when he made him. And it was not impurity and hatred to 
God that led man to sin at first, but these were the effects 
instead of the cause, and impurity w T as in part the curse 
inflicted for the first wrong act. Mr. Edwards will tell us 
that every effect must have a cause, which is certainly true, 
but. will he contend that every effect is like the cause and 
partakes of its nature? If so, from his own position every 
thing is like God and partakes of his nature, as he is the 
cause of all things in the universe. But Ave say that God 
did not cause sin, neither did sin cause itself, but a wrong 
volition did originate at some time, and did not exist from 
eternity, and if it could originate in one instance why not in 
many? And why not in man when he made the first 



358 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

wrong resolve ? It was the action that was wrong and not 
the nature, and the action corrupted the nature and not the 
nature the action. Now, we contend that as man was not 
an impure hater of God when he went off from him, that it 
is begging the question to say that he must first be made 
pure, and come back with fervent love, and pure affection. 
This is certainly the thing for which he comes to Christ. It 
is that he may be made pure, love God, and be saved, and 
he is not saved until he does come. "Look unto me all ye 
ends of the earth, and be ye saved ; for I am God, and 
beside me there is none else." Man's heart is not required 
to be pure and to love God as a condition of salvation. If 
it were, he would first impart all this, or never blame him 
for not coming; but he requires him honestly and sincerely 
to desire salvation and to resolve to trust in Christ alone for 
it. And there is as little purity in his heart and real love to 
God when he makes this resolve and comes to Christ, 
as there was of impurity and hatred to God when he went 
off. Because none can be the children of God who do not 
love him, it would be strange logic and bad divinity to 
contend that the same which is a qualification for sonship 
and heaven is required in the condition for becoming a son. 
Throughout the whole of revelation it does appear that God 
requires sinners to come to Christ his Son with all their guilt 
and condemnation, and he warns them and remonstrates 
with them, "that although their sins be like crimson, they 
shall be as snow, and though like scarlet, they shall be white 
like wool." Life and death, heaven and hell, blessing and 
cursing, and the whole of salvation, all turn on the will of 
man, and are by the Lord hinged upon man's own resolve. 
God did test man's agency when he fell, and he will test it 
under the gospel, and the plan of salvation is adapted to his 
condition and his wants as the}'- are. And surely no man 
who claims to have any correct knowledge of God and his 
Word, will contend for a moment that he could not with as 
much honor to himself accept of a sinner who comes in his 
sins, as to purify him before and accept him afterwards. 
What, then, is the difference between previous and after 
regeneration? The difference is this : We hold that regen- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 359 

eration is salvation itself, and that all who are regenerated 
are regenerated on a divinely-appointed condition, and are 
sealed heirs of heaven on that condition, and that the condi- 
tion is something widely different from salvation. Again, if 
all were regenerated, all would be saved, and this would be 
universal salvation ; and if they were unconditionally regen- 
erated, their salvation would be unconditional as well as 
universal. But if all should not be saved, but some be lost, 
and we inquire why they were lost, on the supposition that 
regeneration is unconditional on or before faith in Christ, we 
are compelled to excuse them and place the blame upon him 
whose prerogative it was to regenerate them unconditionally, 
but failed to do it; for if regeneration be a prerequisite to 
faith, then they could not believe, not being regenerated; 
and he who made it a prerequisite had no right to expect 
faith nor to require it until the qualification for it was given. 
If, therefore, it should never be given, and the sinner should 
never believe, he would be blameless; and senteuced to per- 
dition, his damnation would be unconditional and unjust. 
It is a position both reasonable and scriptural that in every 
case where God requires anything of his creature man, and 
holds him fully responsible for its performance, that requisi- 
tion is not only founded in moral rectitude, but upon the pos- 
sibility of the thing required ; and if the creature obligated to 
obey is not able to comply in the exercise of his unassisted 
nature, it is always to be implied, and so to be understood, 
that he who requires such obedience is pledged for all the 
aid necessary to render the thing required possible. "For 
the Judge of all the earth will do right," and where nothing 
is given nothing will be required. Hence, the position is 
fully taken in the argument that the ability to comply with 
the condition of salvation is incorporated in the very plan 
of the gospel, and is coextensive w T ith Jehovah's require- 
ments, and must be inseparably connected with the obliga- 
tion of man and his whole duty to God. Therefore, if man 
has no ability in himself, and there be no provisions made 
and secured to him in the plan of salvation, there can be no 
moral obligation, as obedience is impossible. And it can 
avail nothing with Calvinists when they are so careful and 



860 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

nice in their distinctions between natural and moral ability, 
for man is a moral agent; his obligation to obe} 7 God is 
moral, the condition of salvation and the requirements of 
the gospel all involve moral agency, and the ability necessary 
is moral ability; and where man has no such ability, and 
God bestows none, Calvinists might as well talk of the 
obligations of a beast or a stone, and of their sins in relation 
to the remedial system, as those of man; for obedience 
would be as reasonable and as possible in one case as the 
other, and condemnation equally righteous. In taking this 
position against Calvinism, we are not driven to the necessity 
of maintaining a depraved self-determining power of the 
will, nor of denying the necessity of divine influence, as 
Calvinists have assumed for us, for such influence is a vital 
element of the plan of salvation, and is secured to all for 
whom the gospel remedy was provided, and whom God 
holds in any way responsible and will judge according to 
the gospel of Jesus Christ. We maintain the freedom of 
the will upon the broad principles of the atonement of 
Christ, made for all men everywhere, divine influence for all 
men everywhere, and with that all the ability to accept 
salvation which was known to be necessary by him who 
provided the remedy. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 361 



LECTURE XIX.— DECREES OF GOD. 



The doctrine of divine decrees is generally held to be a 
great mystery, and yet no doctrine has been more fully 
defined by divines, according to the peculiar creed of each 
expositor — each claims to understand it so as to be able to 
explain it to others, and present not only its first great princi 
pies, but its entire frame-work and bearing throughout God's 
vast empire. Some assume that God has decreed all things, 
and seem to be fully persuaded of its truth, and are some- 
times impatient with those who question its truth. The doc- 
trine is presented thus: 1. God did from all eternity decree 
whatsoever comes to pass, i. e., all things. 2. He also decreed 
all the means for their accomplishment. 3. All things take 
place in exact conformity with the means and decrees, for 
God executes his own decrees. Here we have all thrown into 
a narrow compass, and this much seems to be very plain. In 
what, then, does the high mystery of this doctrine consist? 
The first, second, and third parts, which are an embodiment 
of the whole, are all said to be plain matters of fact, and if so, 
can no more be mysterious as such, than any other facts. The 
doctrine of the Trinity is truly a high mystery in one sense, 
but as it relates to the fact, there is no mystery in it, since 
God has revealed it; and if the former were as fully revealed 
as the latter, it ought to be as fully received. I do not say 
that there is no mystery connected with the doctrine of 
decrees, as it is presented to the mind by its advocates in their 
comments ; but I do say there is no mystery in the facts, as 
such, any more than there is in the least of all truths. The 
thing that I question, is the truth of the doctrine as held 
and taught by many, as presented above. 

The doctrine is either true or false, and I maintain the 
latter, i. <?., that God has not decreed all things, but only some 
24 



362 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

things. The decrees of God are his predetermined purposes, 
or whatever he determined at any time to do or cause to be 
done by his overruling power. The word occurs but seldom 
in the Bible, where the reference is to God, and in ho instance 
does it indicate that his decrees were from eternity, which is 
now remembered. In one place it relates to nature, Job 
xxviii. 26 : " When He made a decree for the rain, and a way 
for the lightning of the thunder." And in another place it 
relates to the plan of salvation, Psalm n. 7-8 : " I will declare 
the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, thou art my son; 
this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give 
thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost 
parts of the earth for thy possession." God at some time 
decreed nature and her laws, and all was very good, and these 
laws are all obedient, and operate under sovereign, absolute 
control, and are never guilty of error, nor can they possibly 
offend God in any way. The decree in relation to the Son of 
God is an immutable one, which will stand forever — the 
decree has gone forth, the plan of salvation is fixed. But in 
this plan the doom of man is not fixed ; he is neither predes- 
tinated to heaven nor hell ; it says: "Ask of me and I shall 
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost 
parts of the earth for thy possession." According to this 
decree, it appears that none were absolutely given to the Son, 
from all eternity, nor at any time thereafter, absolutely and 
unconditionally. The declaration shows a condition in the 
plan of salvation, which is more fully revealed in the gospel, 
and that condition relates to man. He, in order to be given 
to Christ, must believe, and then, according to the decree, he 
will never be lost, but kept by the power of God through 
faith unto salvation. Some have entertained the opinion that 
a certain part of mankind, a definite number, were given to 
Christ, to be redeemed by him, and that these would all be 
saved. This decree, however, teaches no such thing, but the 
very reverse. That God decreed other things, in relation to 
other matters, is not denied. But that he decreed anything 
else in relation to his son as the redeemer of the world, or in 
relation to the world redeemed by him, than what is couched 
in the decree under consideration, is most positively denied, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 363 

and a contradiction meekly challenged. In this decree it will 
be seen that the Son of God is both the redeemer of the 
world and the judge of the world; and he first redeems and 
and then judges the same world. This decree provides for 
all men, that they may be saved, and that all who believe 
shall be saved, and that such as do not believe shall be 
damned. " Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's 
vessel." But there is nothing couched in it which in the 
slightest degree favors the notion that God decreed all things, 
much less the fall of Satan, that he should tempt our first 
parents and that they should sin and fall, and that some men 
should believe and be saved, while others should reject Christ 
and sink to perdition. Where, then, is there any reliable 
evidence for the opinion that God did, either from eternity or 
at any subsequent period, decree all things ? Verily, I have 
seen nothing in the Bible that favors it — all appears to be 
against it. As I have noticed in part what relates to the 
doctrine of decrees in another lecture, I deem it unnecessary 
to be particular in every respect in this place. I have two 
leading reasons for noticing it at all. 1st. Its whole tend- 
ency is to make God the author of sin — of all sin. 2d. It 
stands opposed to the free agency and accountability of man, 
and presents God as the only doing agent in the Universe. 
The advocates of the doctrine of decrees have called up many 
portions of Scripture as proof, while many are of the opinion 
that the Word of God affords none whatever. I am fully 
persuaded that it originated at first, and has been kept alive 
by a false philosophy, which must forever be opposed to the 
teachings of the Bible, as I shall be able to show, and which, 
they have substantially admitted. Those who hold that God 
has decreed all things, whatsoever comes to pass, do not 
except anything, not even sin, which makes out by fair induc- 
tion that God is the author of sin — the philosophy leads to 
that conclusion, and to no other. But this conclusion they 
repudiate in opposition to the premise assumed, and here they 
fall upon scriptural ground, that God is holy and cannot be 
the author or approver of sin, which is true. But again, 
they make the attempt to reconcile these conflicting senti- 
ments by the use of a phrase which is without form, and void, 



364 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

like the world in its chaotic state, i. e., "that God did all 
these things, so as thereby he is not the author of sin." One 
thing is still maintained, i. e., that God decreed and did it all, 
and we are left to say whether he is or is not the author of 
sin, according to the premise. This philosophy has two 
leading points, or prongs, both of which alternately become 
standpoints, or predicates, as occasion may require. One is, 
God's fore- or infinite knowledge. The other is, that he did 
absolutely decree all things, and consequently knows all 
things; making his knowledge at one time to depend upon 
his decrees, and at another the very argument to prove them. 
The infinite knowledge of God is admitted, and if decrees 
and foreknowledge were the same, then the admission of one 
would be the admission of the other; but if they were not 
the same, but widely different, then while one may be 
admitted, the other remains to be proven. I will show the 
difference with sufficient clearness to answer all the purposes 
in the argument, and do it with the admissions and teachings 
of predestinarians. They say of the foreknowledge of God, 
that it is infinite, that he knows all things. But what do 
they say of his decrees ? 1st. That he decreed all things. 2d. 
He ordained all the means for their accomplishment. 3d. 
He executes his decrees by his superintending providence. 
low, I ask the reader if he sees the difference ? He must see 
that the infinite knowledge of God is a perfection of his 
nature, which in and of itself does nothing efficiently — it 
never works, but plans. In decrees we see a planning power, 
and an almighty working power, which brings everything to 
pass. Next, I ask, can there be any evil in God knowing all 
things? Surely not. But what will be said of decrees, when 
w^e are told that (rod in wisdom planned and by power 
ordained all the ends and means of all things, and superin- 
tends their execution? Is there any evil in all that comes 
to pass? God's infinite knowledge is but one of his perfec- 
tions, and it may exist forever, and be exercised forever, and 
never decree or do anything. But the decrees of God must 
involve all his attributes and perfections — his wisdom to plan, 
his will to determine, and his power to execute; and the 
exercise of these must involve his holiness, justice, goodness, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 365 

and truth. It is one thing to know all things, but quite a 
different matter to do all things, and we can have no just 
conception of the decrees of God, without the will and 
working power of him who decrees. Therefore, it must be 
manifest to the most common mind that God's foreknowl- 
edge and decrees are not the same, but as wide apart as any 
two extremes in the universe can be. God may know all 
things, and all the sins of angels and men, and not be the 
author or approver of anything, necessarily; but he cannot 
degree anything without being both the author and approver, 
because his divine will must be exercised in all his decrees ; 
and moreover, in order to make things certain, he must fix 
all the ends and ordain all the means for their certain accom- 
plishment. The absurd notion of eternal decrees has, in all 
probability, originated in the error of confounding the fore- 
knowledge of God with his decrees, as one and the same. 
The argument on that false premise would be that God 
knew all things from eternity; consequently decreed all 
things, not considering that his will must be exercised in 
decreeing. As the Word of God must decide all matters of 
controversy, I will appeal at once to that tribunal, and show 
that God did not decree all things, and in doing this it will 
break the web and overthrow the dangerous error. I am not 
to prove that he did not decree anything, but that he did not 
decree all 'things, which will prepare the way to decide with 
safety what he did, and what he did not, and could not, 
decree. And if it can be shown with certainty that he did 
not decree one single thing of a certain family of things, 
that will be sufficient to prove that he never decreed any- 
thing of that nature or brood. See proof, James I. 13 : " Let 
no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God ; for 
God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any 
man." Numbers xxiii. 19 : " God is not a man that he should 
lie." Tit. 12: " God that cannot lie." Deut. xxxn. 4 : " He 
is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judg- 
ment : a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is 
he." God cannot be tempted with evil, nor can he tempt his 
creatures to commit sin — he cannot lie; he is the God of 
truth, and all his ways and works are just and. right — all that 



366 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

he does by will or work must be perfect. Therefore, as God 
cannot lie, or tempt men to evil, he could not, and did not, 
decree it — his very nature is immutably opposed to it, and he 
never could will it. How, then, can any one believe that God 
decreed all things that come to pass, when there are so many 
things that he hates from his very nature, and could not pos- 
sibly will. They must believe against the Bible, and believe 
in decrees without the divine will, or that God willed many 
things which are opposed to his nature and will. 

If there is any one sin which God could not decree because 
his nature is holy, for the same reason he could not decree 
any evil whatever; and for the very good reason that he can- 
not lie, he cannot decree that his creatures should be guilty of 
falsehood. I therefore maintain that God never did, and 
never will, decree any moral evil — anything but what was and 
is good, and that if man had not gone contrary to his will he 
never would have sinned, and that there can be no sin except 
by a violation of God's decrees : let his decrees be followed 
out in all things by his creatures, and they will please him 
and rise to heaven at. last. I will here lay down one rule by 
which the reader may safely decide concerning all God's 
works and decrees, which is so plain and Scriptural that no 
one can soberly controvert it. The rule, or scale, is this : 1st. 
God's revealed will is all against sin and impurity of every 
shade and kind, and forbids and condemns it. 2d. All the 
attributes and perfections of God are opposed to sin, and must 
forever be so. ' 3d. The fact that God made all things good, 
and man in his own likeness and image at first, is clear proof 
that he could not will evil, or decree a bad thing. 4th. If he 
could not will sin, or decree moral evil at one time, he never 
can at any time; for he is immutable in all his perfections. 
It will be seen by comparing God's nature (which may be 
summed up in holiness, justice, goodness, and truth,) with his 
revealed word and law, that there is nothing but harmony 
throughout; and all we do know or can know of God and 
his decrees, is by what he has revealed to us in his Word. 
The great law and immutable principle by which God decrees 
and works, is in himself and is himself. By that rule we 
know that he cannot lie, he cannot tempt or be tempted to 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 367 

evil — in a word, it is as impossible for him to decree that his 
accountable creatures should commit sin, as it is for him to do 
so himself: and we are to account for the introduction of moral 
evil into this world on different data altogether than that of 
God's decrees. His decrees may be known by his word and 
character. It is by no means strange to me that all those who 
charge God with having decreed whatsoever comes to pass — 
the first, and last, and all the sins of men — should also charge 
him with having fixed, with unalterable decrees, the destiny 
of all men, and that he ordained some to everlasting life, and 
some to everlasting death. One single error of that nature 
opens wide the flood gates for almost every other which has 
deluged this world. It leads to a denial of man's free agency, 
and places him under a sealed fate ; and then condemns and 
sends him to perdition for his sins. At one time it holds 
that there is a possible salvation for all men, and that they 
might be saved if they would ; and at another that some of 
them were doomed to hell from the beginning. It makes 
God the author of all evil, and the worst being in the uni- 
verse, and man his instrument in carrying out his purposes. 
We find more or less of it in the creeds of universalists and 
deists — they begin and end with it, in some shape. But, as 
we are not to account for the introduction of sin into the 
world, and all subsequent sins on the ground of divine 
decrees, how are they to be accounted for? The answer is 
plain: There never could have been such a thing as moral 
evil if angels and men had not been free and responsible. 
]N"or even then, if there had been no law. The law of God 
was his will and decree in relation to man, and the first sin of 
Adam, and all the sins of men, are acts of their own against 
the will and decrees of God. Sins are not acts committed 
against one single attribute of God, or one single principle of 
law and rectitude ; but a violation of the decrees of God, and 
acts of rebellion against all his attributes and perfections — 
the entire Godhead, and every principle of the divine law : 
"For he that offends in one point is guilty of all." So far, 
then, from God having decreed that man should sin, his sin 
was to all intents and purposes a violation of God's decree, 
published and made known to him. That same decree is 



368 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

what all men have transgressed, and must answer to in the 
day of accounts. In speaking of God and his plans and 
works, we are not authorized to think that we know all that 
he has decreed or done ; but we may know with certainty 
that he never has, and never will, decree moral evil, for he is 
holy. All his works appear to be the result of good decrees 
— this world with all its appendages came into being at the 
motion of his will and power, and all was very good, and he 
could not will that it should be otherwise when first created, 
or became so afterwards. No decree of God appears to have 
been eternal, though he is eternal. The idea of an eternal 
decree is an absurdity which must at once appear to the mind 
when we consider that there can be no decree without a 
resolve or action of the will of him who decrees, and we can 
have no conception of an eternal resolve, other than it could 
not be; and forasmuch as the Word of God affords no war- 
rant for it,we may safely reject it as false. God decrees what 
is right for him to decree, and at the right time, and all his 
decrees which in any way concern us and involve our eternal 
interests, are in due time made known to us; and such as are 
not, we need have no concern about. 

The decrees of God have been divided into two classes : 1st. 
Absolute decrees. 2d. Permissive decrees. These are said 
to extend to all things, and influence all things, according to 
the nature of each. Absolute decrees are such as fix the des- 
tiny of things, with absolute and unalterable certainty, so 
that they commence and progress, and finally terminate under 
the control of certain established laws, or by the immediate 
control of God, or both. With alsolute decrees there can be 
no departure from the laws that govern, or the superintending 
power that controls — it is impossible that there can be any 
infraction offered to such decrees and regulations; and if the 
decrees and laws are good, everything must begin and 
progress and end in perfect harmony with the decrees and 
regulations made at first. Nothing, whether mind or matter, 
can travel out of its regular, predestined course, nor fail of 
doing the will of Him who ordered all — like the law of grav- 
itation and the motions of the planets, every part can but act 
well. Under such decrees and regulations, moral evil is im- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 369 

possible, as much so as it would be for the sun, and planets, 
and rivers, and mountains, to sin ; and angels and men would 
under such regulations, be as irresponsible as mountains and 
rivers, and a general judgment about as fit in one case as the 
other. Beings and things, under such decrees, have nothing 
to do but to roll on, like wheels in a great machine, as they 
are moved upon, while they can have no consciousness of any- 
thing, unless it be motion. Permissive decrees, so denomi- 
nated, must be the opposite of absolute decrees, and when 
spoken of in reference to moral free agents, must signify 
liberty of action, freedom of will. Permissive decrees, then, 
must be such as constituted man a moral free agent, with 
liberty and power to act freely in view of moral law, 
capable of keeping the law, and also liable to sin. I under- 
stand that God decreed that man should have full liberty to 
do either right or wrong, as he might choose; but should be 
held accountable for his actions. If this is what is meant by 
permissive decrees, then it must at once appear that man was 
free from all absolute decrees, in so far as his actions as an 
accountable creature were concerned ; which would only be 
another term for free agency. "Will those who speak of per- 
missive decrees say whether man is free from the fate of 
absolute decrees or not ? Man would certainly be in a strange 
dilemma to be the subject of both, and God would appear in 
no very favorable light to pass such decrees upon the head of 
his creatures — one decree controlling ail their actions and 
sealing their fate ; and the other granting them permission to 
act freely in view of life and death. If man is bound by 
absolute decrees, the idea of permissive decrees is all smoke, 
and free volition a deception; man can have no permission to 
choose freely — he can only act in conformity with absolute 
decrees, until they are taken out of the way. But if it should 
be said that God's absolute and permissive decrees are in 
perfect harmony, what then ? Why, they must either be one 
and the same, upon a fair analysis, or one must bow to the 
other; for where absolute decrees exist and bind men, free- 
dom of action is out of the question, and permissive decrees 
can only mean liberty to act in conformity with the absolute 
decrees. Those who hold the notion of permissive decrees 



370 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

are also the zealous advocates of absolute decrees, and finding 
that absolute decrees make God the author of all evil, and 
set aside the agency and responsibility of man, the idea of 
permissive decrees has been conceived to soften the doctrine 
of absolute decrees, without the shadow of a change in the 
former. Permissive decrees, in an isolated condition, have 
very much the appearance of the doctrine of moral free 
agency, and many who look at the dress of the latter and 
forget the homeliness of the former, may conclude that the 
latter has dethroned the former, and that man is of a truth a 
moral free agent, with full liberty of choice under the juris- 
diction of permissive decrees; while the latter is nothing but 
smoke to hide the deformity of absolute decrees. Absolute 
decrees must have the precedency in the system of decrees. 
Consequently, man, with permissive decrees, is under the 
unalterable rule of absolute decrees, which are said to be as 
immutable as God himself. In short, permissive decrees .is 
liberty to carry out absolute decrees, like the running of 
wheels in a machine driven by a great propellor. If the advo- 
cates of permissive decrees will disengage man from absolute 
decrees first, and free him from that fate, and then place him 
under permissive decrees, with full liberty to act freely, then 
I will not object to permissive decrees as they are called, but 
take it as the doctrine of free moral agency, notwithstanding 
the word decree. For I think that God did will that man 
should be free to act, and he made him so — perfectly free from 
the fate of any and all decrees, either that he should or 
should not sin — that when he did sin he was righteously con- 
demned as his own destroyer, and might justly have been left 
to perish without remedy. God, however, decreed a remedy 
for him, through his Son, and afforded man another trial. 
The decree was absolute in one sense, i. e., to provide salva- 
tion for man, and offer it to him — to save him if he accepted, 
and to damn him if he rejected. Then He declares the 
decree : " I will declare the decree : Thou art my Son ; this 
day have I begotten thee ; ask of me and I shall give thee the 
heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the 
earth for thy possession." — Psalm n. — see it all. 



SECTION VI. 



LECTURE XX.— OF A FUTURE LIFE. 



1. The present life, short and wretched as it is, has no 
charms or anything connected with it to make it in any way 
desirable, if it were to terminate here and be cut off from all 
hope of the future. There is no inducement to live, nor can 
there be anything to comfort and cheer in death. It is the 
future existence of man that attaches such importance to his 
present being — that holds out motives to live and sheds a light 
into the darkness of the tomb. Yet, left to himself, unaided 
and untaught from heaven, man by all his reasoning powers 
can never penetrate the darkness of the tomb and claim for 
himself upon any firm basis a life beyond the grave. The 
world in which we live throughout its vast extent presents no 
monuments of immortality — nothing but change and waste, 
the urns and ashes of other ages. And while men in all ages 
have thirsted and panted for immortality, untaught from 
heayen> the best they could do was to hope for that of which 
they had no assurance. The world in which we live is a blank 
book, and the powers of man may play upon it from age to 
age, and never be able to make oue deduction from it, which 
constitutes one particle of proof, either for or against a future 
state — it all amounts to conjecture at last. Yet it is admitted 
that good men have desired and hoped for it, while bad men 
have stood in dread alarm. We know that we now live, but 
the certainty of a future state is a doctrine of God, and 
Reason has no claim of discovery ; she is only at best a feeble 
pupil, and is to look for her lessons from above. 

2. As a future state cannot be established from the struct- 

(371) 



372 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

ure, properties, and workings of the material universe, nor 
•from any peculiarity in the properties and organization of 
man himself, it must be admitted that by no legitimate induc- 
tion, analogically drawn from the whole range of nature, can 
there be one item of plausible evidence brought in array 
against it; but the inquiry, when fairly conducted, must tend 
to remove objections and prepare the way for proof from the 
right source in confirmation of a future state. For no one 
can claim to know that things which exist now may not exist 
forever in some shape ; and indeed, it appears reasonable that 
they will, unless some controlling, omnipotent energy should 
blot them out of being. For while there is change every- 
where, there does not appear to be annihilation or self-de- 
struction anywhere. And who by his great wisdom can tell 
that man, who has been so fearfully and wonderfully made, 
with a power to think, and feel, and act, may not continue to 
think, and feel, and act beyond the boundaries of time ? This 
is all possible, and certainly very reasonable. And although I 
believe the reasonable soul of man to be immaterial, and though 
this should be admitted by all, nothing is claimed as it might 
be in demonstration of the future state of man — the proof 
does not rest there ; it depends upon God alone, and if the 
thing is possible with him, and he has declared it, it shall be 
so. If we indulge our reason at all as to whether it would be 
right and best that man should live in a future state, it all 
terminates in favor of it, with not even a shadow against it. 
For it is fully as logical to conclude that rational beings may 
live after us as before us, in other worlds as well as this, and as 
truly in the future as in the present world. There is such a 
thing as life and existence, and it may as truly exist hereafter 
as now. 

3. That life is a blessing much prized by all sober, sane 
men, may be safely affirmed, and as God has conferred it 
upon us with ardent longings for perpetuity and immortality, 
we may as rationally conclude that he will continue it, as he 
gave it at first. Yea, more so : for with our love of life and 
pantings for immortality given us by the Creator, there could 
not be a greater infraction of our nature, nor a calamity more 
gloomy brought upon us than the mighty stroke of annihila- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 373 

tion — hell itself could present little, if any, more gloom than 
the idea of becoming a blank in the universe of God forever. 
And man, from his very nature, would be inclined to complain 
and reproach his Maker with cruelty for creating him with 
such powers, only for the purpose of enhancing his misery by 
sad disappointment. Who does not feel that he would much 
rather never have been, than to cease to be? Moreover, the 
providence of God and his justice in no slight degree appear 
to be involved in this question. For there are many things 
which appear to be very unequal in this life, and the motive 
to virtue and morality is in many instances far from being 
realized here. Often the vilest of men are in power and 
flourish like the green bay tree, and have more than heart 
could wish, while they contemn God, defy his authority, and 
murder his saints. If there is any virtue, any goodness, any 
righteousness and justice, these things are very far from being 
regulated as they ought to be in this life, provided there were 
no hereafter ; and we might conclude to live as we list — to eat, 
drink, and be merry (if we can), tor to-morrow we die. But 
if there is another life beyond this, although justice is not 
meted out here, vice punished, and virtue rewarded, it will 
be done in the world to come, and God will vindicate the 
rights of his throne, punish the wicked, and reward the 
righteous, and regulate all things according to the purity of 
his nature. 

4. On the supposition that man's existence ends forever at 
the termination of his mortal career, there can be no 
influences or motives brought to bear upon him in relation to 
anything beyond the boundaries of time — time must be the 
utmost limit of all he is or does. This position would open 
wide the door for self-indulgence and self-gratilication, regard- 
less of the sorrows and sufferings of others, and of all law 
and justice-; and men would avoid no crime which promised 
present good, but at most would only seek concealment for 
the time being, in view of present privation. No penalties 
and sanctions of law, or motives to virtue, righteousness, and 
charity could have the least force whatever upon actions 
beyond the grave; all would be confined to time. And in 
this state of things laws and penalties, oaths and promises of 



374 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

both God and man would be unavailing and worthless, and 
all distinctions between virtue and vice would be broken 
down, and for life, property, and reputation there would be 
no security or safeguard, and the only possible government 
that could exist would be that of force. In the government 
of this world there must' be a power greater than that of man, 
and a penalty that hangs over the destiny of man in the 
eternal world, which can strike terror to his undying soul, 
check him in his course, and awe him to obedience, or this 
world would be a hundredfold worse than it is. The friends 
of humanity, the patrons of virtue, the lovers of righteous- 
ness, justice, and truth, and, in a word, all good men, have 
been and now are friends to the doctrine of a future state ; 
while it is a notorious fact that it has only been opposed by 
the profligate and abandoned of our race, who, having little 
or no hope of peace hereafter, sought refuge among lies. 
Universal salvation, while it differs in detail from the last 
named error, is little if any better in its results and practical 
influence ; for it opens the door to all of a ready admittance 
into heaven, irrespective of moral character. And there 
appears to be no distinction between the best and vilest of 
our race after death — all are alike happy — and virtue and vice 
have all their rewards in this life, if any at all. Hence, all mo- 
tives to good and terror to crime are swept away by the scheme, 
and all men are left to follow their unbridled lusts wherever 
they list, regardless of God or man. Men, by nature prone 
to disregard the invitations of the Gospel and the warnings 
of heaven, either procrastinate until death, or totally neglect 
a preparation for the next life, and under its influence launch 
out into eternity to meet what follows. Whether the scheme 
be that of universal salvation or universal death, the result is 
much the same ; and as to redeeming qualities, it has none in 
its frame-work or practical bearings for either time or eter- 
nity — nothing but gloom. 

5. In full proof of a future state, nothing is necessary but 
heaven's own explicit word, and when this is brought to bear 
upon the question there can no longer remain any doubt in 
relation to either soul or body ; both are destined to live in a 
future state, whether they be just or unjust ; Ec. xn. 14 — " For 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 375 

God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret 
thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." And Paul 
says: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of 
Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his 
body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or 
bad." — 2 Cor. v. 10. There is to be a general judgment, 
where God will mete out even-handed justice to all, and this 
judgment will be after death : " And as it is appointed unto all 
men once to die; but after this the judgment." — Heb. ix. 27. 
They shall all live after death, both the righteous and the 
wicked, and Christ shall divide them asunder: "and these 
shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous 
into life eternal." We live here, and we shall live hereafter 
forever and ever, and. God will bless the righteous and punish 
the wicked according to his Word. The souls of the righteous 
shall be happy after death, before the resurrection, and 
also happy, both soul and body, after it. For, says Paul, 
" We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were 
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens." — 2 Cor. v. 1. And again : 
"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence- 
forth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
labors, and their works do follow them." — Rev. xiv. 13. 
Nothing else has or can have an influence so momentous upon 
the life and conduct of men as the certainty of a future end- 
less state, and the connection and bearing which time has 
upon eternity. The certainty of a future state of happiness 
or misery, in accordance with the character formed in time, 
gives to this short life all the weight and importance of eter- 
nity, as there will be no changes from bad to good, or from 
misery to joy and peace beyond the grave. All things for 
the life to come are to be regulated and attended to in this; 
and eternity will receive us as time dismisses us. Hence, all 
the interests and solemnities which hang around the eternal 
state of man attach equally to this life, which is eternity just 
begun. And God who gave us this life, which we know we 
have, has recorded his pledge for the next, which makes it 
equally certain with the present, forasmuch as his power is 
competent to perform his word. 



376 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

6. According to every known principle of the divine gov- 
ernment and the plan of salvation, upon which any change for 
the better takes place in man, we have no reason to conclude 
that he who in time neglects a preparation for eternity, would 
not continue to do so forever, were his probation continued. 
For the plan in this life is the very best, and in every way 
adapted to meet all the wants of man, and to afford him a fair 
and full opportunity of being saved in conformity with his 
free choice. If, therefore, life were tendered beyond the 
boundaries of time to him who spurns it in time, with no 
improvements in the plan, or in the sinner for the better, he 
would eternally reject salvation and remain a sinner; unless 
God, in total disregard of his plan as it is expressed in his 
Word, were to change him as the sculptor changes the rude 
block of marble into the well-proportioned form. Such opin- 
ions, as we see, would set aside the moral government of God 
and his moral administration, and substitute in its place that 
of physical force, the whole tendency of which would be to 
promote rebellion against God, indifference alike to the warn- 
ings and promises of the divine Word, and a total disregard 
of pure religion. And it requires but little sagacity to see 
that such sentiments would be rank poison in theory and most 
deadly in practice in all governments, whether human or 
diviue. In order to move and stir this stupid world of 
sinners, the truth must come upon them freighted with all 
the weight of divine authority, and be urged upon their con- 
sideration by the eternity of hell torments on the one hand, 
and endless life and felicity on the other. And the full 
weight of this awful responsibility, with its naked point and 
force, must be thrown at the sinner's heart, with urgent calls 
for immediate action and an unreserved surrender to the King 
of heaven. In order to give weight and worth to the life and 
doings of man, and a proper direction to his course here, all 
must have such a bearing upon his hereafter as to decide his 
destiny for heaven or hell, and the trial close at or before 
death. For any theory which either tends to discredit a here- 
after, or to protract the propitious agency of man beyond 
time, or that induces a belief of universal salvation, must 
have a demoralizing and most pernicious influence upon 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 377 

society, and prove perilous to the eternal interests of souls. 
Let time have all the importance which eternity can attach 
to it, in order to intimidate its murders from such hazardous 
deeds, and turn their attention to its great use and the proper 
improvement to be made of it. 

7. While the certainty of a future state and the felicity of 
the righteous immediately after death, have been by the 
Almighty placed beyond all rational doubt, }^et it does not 
fully appear what they shall be, nor where in the universe of 
Jehovah they will have their dwelling place. Only they 
shall be with Jesus and be like him, and behold his glory. 
To demonstrate that man, both soul and body, will live after 
death, Jesus Christ who had a real body and a reasonable 
soul, did rise from the dead and live as truly after as before 
death, and his recorded declaration is, "Because I live, ye 
shall live also," and " Where I am, there shall also my 
servant be." Although the divinity of Christ is everywhere, 
his soul and body are somewhere in the universe, and his 
people to be with him must have a locality, and like him 
have pure souls and living, glorified bodies. It is not 
assumed, however, that heaven consists in a locality or great 
palace, but in holiness as the qualification for enjoyment, 
and the unbounded source of pleasure created by the pres- 
ence of God reconciled. And whether heaven is or is not a 
local place, the great truth of a future state and the future 
felicity of the righteous remains the same. The righteous 
and the wicked all die and go to their own place, and are 
seen no more in this life, nor is it scriptural to suppose that 
any of all these linger about this world after death — they 
depart either to heaven or hell. The righteous cease from 
their labors and their works do follow them, and we have no 
reason to conclude that God employs them in the affairs 
of this world any more, " for they rest from their labors." 
The rich man in the torments of- hell was not suffered to 
come back, nor would God send either Lazarus or Abraham 
to this world on even messages of mercy, but the way was 
positively closed up. Some have supposed that saints and 
angels are sent from the spirit- wo rid on errands of mercy, 
because it is said of angels that they are ministering spirits, 
25 



d7o MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of sal- 
vation. We, however, are not to hazard the troth of God on 
a passage which is so remote from our comprehension, when 
it is fully demonstrated from the Word that sainted spirits do 
not return, much less the wicked. Hence, the ministering 
angels and spirits are more likely to be such as the angels or 
ministers of the seven churches of Asia — men of like 
passions with ourselves, such as the Lord has from age to age 
called and sent into his harvest. 

8. There is a life within man altogether above and superior 
to animal life — a life which thinks, knows, reflects, remembers, 
desires, and reaches out into the future with cravings for 
unending good, which has never been known to exist in 
animals below man. What can these workings be but the 
legitimate outgoings of the immortal, undying soul? There 
is nothing unreasonable in the doctrine of a future life, and 
certainly nothing could better comport with the wisdom and 
goodness of God. And no truth in revelation is oftener or 
more clearly taught than the future life of man. His exist- 
ence here is only spoken of as the morning hour, and a 
pledge of the future. For he who could and did give us this 
life, can perpetuate it, and give us that which is endless; and 
as he lias promised it, he certainly can and will perform it. 
Consequently, it requires no great effort of faith if we believe 
in the existence of God at all, in his power and truth, to 
helieve ali and every thing promised by him. He has only 
to will it, and the thing is done. Time is nothing but a 
point in eternity, and as truly belongs to it and constitutes a 
part of it, as one day in a year is an essential part of the 
year in its proper connection. Hence, we who are here in 
time, are in one sense in eternity, and although we shall 
undergo a change and leave this point, we shall never go out 
ot eternity, nor cease to be while it endures. In fact, there 
is no destructive power in the universe but that which 
created all things at first. Death may put an end to animal 
life, but death never can destroy real existence; even matter 
will exist forever, when once in existence, unless taken out 
by the same power who formed it. Man's soul is a created 
something which thinks and knows, separate and apart from 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 379 

the body, and these powers are not disturbed by time nor 
death — they are independent of these by creation. The body 
is nothing more than a frail tenement for the time, destiued 
to fall, that the inhabitant may go out into a larger house 
until the old one shall be reared again and fitted up for the 
immortal soul. Here man is only an infant, his immortal 
man has only come into life when he is said to die. It is 
only the beginning of his long life, the life for which he was 
made at first. The whole value and excellency of man's life 
consists in its duration and capability of happiness ; it is in 
this that the wisdom and goodness of the Creator are dis- 
played so wonderfully; he formed beings who can know and 
enjoy him forever. Man is everywhere spoken of in the 
Word of God as a being of this high order, and upon him 
alone of all his creation, did God impress his likeness, and to 
him only did he. impart a rational soul which thirsts for 
immortality. There is no evidence anywhere in the universe 
known to us, which in the slightest degree opposes our belief 
of a future life and the blessedness of a future heaven. The 
old-time saints believed it ; the prophets taught it, and Jesus 
Christ and his apostles confirmed all that had gone before 
concerning it; and finally, the resurrection of our Lord 
sealed the entire chain of testimony, when he conquered 
death and spoiled the grave. Christ at all times taught his 
people that his kingdom was not of this world, and that 
their inheritance was beyond the grave. As one has said, 
" Here have we no continuing city ; but we seek one to come." 
A.nd John in his vision saw the souls of them who were 
beheaded, and likewise the new Jerusalem coming down 
from God out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband. 
This world is at best nothing more than the first budding of 
summer and future realities. The great realities of Jeho- 
vah's dominions and of -true life are all beyond this world of 
shadows. We are vain when we suppose that we have seen 
all and known all of life. We have seen nothing clearly; 
our vision has been through a clouded glass; but there we 
are to see great realities, and know as we are known. For 
those who are disposed to call in question the life to come, 
we have neither proof nor argument that would be of any 



380 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

avail. For having parted with their reason, like the old 
Jews, who, after having seen the Son of God and the 
miracles wrought by him, still required signs. Those who 
are blind to the existence of God, who has declared his being 
in the heavens above and in the earth beneath, are beyond 
the reach of both reason and testimony, for no one can be 
expected to believe God's Word, who denies his being. On 
the other hand, the proof of a future life is as unequivocal 
as the existence of God, and stands or falls with it. The 
certainty of his being is our guaranty for every word spoken 
by him, and we doubt the one as little as the other; both are 
immutably true. We present the doctrine of the future life 
of man as it has come from the mouth of the Almighty, 
for he has said, "As I live," and "because I live; ye shall 
live also." No form of speech could surpass this in compre- 
hensiveness and force. The future life of man by this 
declaration, is as fully confirmed as the being of the speaker : 
"As I live, or because I live, ye shall live also." — John xiv. 
19. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, while it was an essen- 
tial part of our redemption, was no less a full confirmation 
of the truth of revelation and of .the whole plan of recovery. 
The truth and reality of a future state of both soul and body, 
was confirmed and sealed. Hence, when the apostles preached 
Christ and the resurrectiou, they presented the substance of 
.the entire plan of salvation. 

9. From what has been said in relation to a future life, the 
present will appear to be of vast moment. For whatever 
may be the importance of eternity with all its solemnities, 
the same is true of this short life, forasmuch as the latter is 
the time and place of preparation for the former, and as we 
leave the one we enter the other. We are all thinking and 
working for eternity, and whatever we do here will meet us 
there, and the very character we form here we shall take 
with us there. Of all this, there will be no just ground of 
complaint, for if time is short and eternity endless, this is as 
it ought to be. For the shorter our stay here and the sooner 
we are gone the better, if we have all that is necessary for the 
preparation and irr prove it as we ought. God has man- 
ifested his kindness in the speedy removal of his children 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 381 

from the toils and sorrows of this life to the next, their home 
in heaven. Paul said it would be far better for him to depart 
and be with Christ, yet he was willing to abide here a 
season for the good of others. We have time enough to 
prepare for eternit} 7 , and if we do not improve what we have, 
on what ground could we ask more, or conclude within 
ourselves that we would ever change our course for the 
better, should our probation be extended a thousandfold? 
Time is here, and eternity not far off, and will soon be here 
also, and whatever remains to be done should be done with- 
out delay — both heaven and hell are near. Let us work by 
the light of day, for the time of labor will soon be over, and 
the night come when no man can work. Is there a life 
of pure and endless blessedness at our very door, and within 
our grasp ? Let us take hold of it at once and make it ours. 
In view of the fact that there is a life and living joy, and a 
dreadful hell, both within a few days' journey, I am stricken 
with amazement at our want of zeal and energy in our 
several* departments of labor. But how unaccountable is 
that darkness and that death-like slumber which have settled 
down on souls, who, although they are within the grasp of 
life, and also within a few strides of eternal death, cannot be 
roused to see their danger until all is lost. 



382 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



LECTURE XXI.— THE RESURRECTION FROM 
THE DEAD. 



The resurrection from the dead relates to the body only, 
the future state to both soul and body. It does not follow 
as a matter of course, that the body or bodies of all men 
will rise because the soul is immortal ; that might be admit- 
ted as true, while the other is denied. The argument, 
however, in favor of the resurrection is strengthened from 
the fact of the soul's immortality, and the proof which goes 
to establish the one ma} 7 safely be used in establishing the 
other; yet neither can be fully demonstrated by abstract 
reasoning — both depend upon revelation. The reasoning 
powers of the mind may be exerted to the utmost, unaided 
by light and revelation from God, and finally settle down in 
darkness and doubt as to the certainty of the immortality of 
the soul or the resurrection of the body, and the future state 
of both. All reasoning on this momentous subject in order 
to arrive at any safe conclusion, must be founded upon 
revelation as the only safe guide to truth. When I speak of 
revelation as the only directory in this matter, I would not 
be understood to say that none of the race can or ever have 
had any certain persuasion of a future state without the 
written Word; this I do not believe. For Enoch, Abraham, 
and Job had as clear evidence of the future state of both soul 
and body as Paul had, and Job expresses it in language as 
strong as that used by Paul, though more laconic. This 
much of revelation has doubtless been given to man} 7 others 
ever since the world began, and by the same divine agent. 
The only true religion is a revealed religion, and is by no 
means a thing of modern times, nor can any one who reads 
the Bible with care so believe. There have been those in all 
ages who felt its divine power in their hearts, and lived and 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 383 

died in full assurance of a future state of felicity given them 
by the Holy Spirit. The Bible, as it has been revealed, was 
designed to teach the world the mind and will of God as 
a system of pure truth, yet there is one great leading truth 
that it never has and never will impart to any one — i. e., 
spiritual religion in the soul ; this was from the beginning 
and will continue to be the work of the Holy Spirit, and 
must depend upon his immediate presence and direct tes- 
timony, without which there can be no lively hope and full 
assurance of future felicity. Whether all persons who are 
the subjects of regeneration are favored with an assurance of 
the resurrection of the body, is not assumed. It is, however, 
true that they themselves have an assurance of a future state 
and of future blessedness, which constitutes the ground of a 
lively hope within them, which gives joy and triumph in the 
moment of death. As to the theory of the resurrection they 
may know little or nothing, yet they feel the evidence within 
that nothing will be lost. The written Word teaches the 
truth of the soul's immortality and the resurrection of the 
bodies of all the race, yet there have been those who 
rejected all that testimony and denied both ; and this may 
continue in all comiug time to be true of unrenewed men to 
some extent, but never can be true of any one who has been 
renewed, and has that spirit and power in his heart that 
raised up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. No one 
having the spirit of Christ can deny the Spirit's sanctifying 
power, call Jesus accursed, or deny his Messiahship, all of 
which is done by denying his resurrection from the dead. 
Paul had been well instructed by Gamaliel in the law and 
the prophets, and had also heard much of Christ, his cruci- 
fixion and resurrection from the dead, yet he was a bloody 
persecuter, and never appears to have believed the doctrine 
of the resurrection scriptural^ until the Holy Spirit renewed 
his heart, then he became the able defender of the faith 
which before he spared no means to destroy. It may be said 
that he w T as inspired to do this. That he was an inspired 
man is true, but it is equally true that he, as well other well- 
informed Jews, had much evidence touching the resurrection 
of Christ which had been imparted to other inspired men 



384 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

before him, yet lie never could say that Jesus was the Christ 
with all his heart, until he became a new man. He says 
" that no man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the 
Holy Ghost." Surely he did not intend to be understood 
that all must be inspired as he was, before they could believe 
the theoretical truth as it had been revealed to others and 
taught by them ; that cannot be his teaching. But it is 
manifest from what he says, that his allusion was to some 
divine testimony which the Holy Spirit imparts to those who 
are renewed by him ; they can then say with Job, " I know 
that my Redeemer liveth," but never before. There is a 
power imparted to the heart in the work of regeneration 
which the inspired Word was never designed to impart, and 
never does afford. To this Paul alludes when he says, " We 
know that if oar earthly house of this tabernacle were 
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens." 

The plan of salvation contemplated the regeneration of 
both soul and body, and the power that regenerates the one 
regenerates the other, and this work is denominated a resur- 
rection in both cases, and both depend upon the resurrection 
of Christ and the power that raised him from the dead. 
There is a first and second resurrection — first of the soul into 
newness of life, and, secondly, of the body, and Christ who 
is the first that rose from the dead, is the resurrection and 
the life in both cases. Faith takes hold of Christ, and the 
soul "rises with him through the faith of the operation of 
God, who hath raised him from the dead." This is the first 
resurrection. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the 
first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power." 
That the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating the soul is 
denominated a resurrection, may be still further demonstrated 
by reference to Rom. vi., first part; Col. in. 1, and Eph. n. 6: 
" If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are 
above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." "And 
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in 
heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Here we see that a resur- 
rection is spoken of as having taken place in persons yet in 
the body — " they had risen with Christ, and by the same 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 385 

power which raised Christ from the dead." This is a resur- 
rection not of the body but of the soul ; the power that 
resurrects, purifies, and imparts spiritual life. It being 
proven that regeneration is a resurrection, it must be 
admitted that this is the first resurrection, as there yet 
remains to be a resurrection of the body. The first resurrec- 
tion raises the soul from the power and dominion of sin, and 
restores the likeness of Christ who first rose from the dead. 
The second resurrection will also be a great change ; by the 
same power based upon the same foundation, will raise the 
bodies of those who have part in the first resurrection, in the 
likeness of the glorified body of the Son of God. As it 
is said, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when 
he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as 
he is." Both these changes will in their proper time, " be in 
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and we shall be 
changed." I have before said that all our knowledge of a 
future state of both soul and body is derived from revelation, 
which is true. But in order to know the whole truth, we 
must have the whole of revelation, not only the written 
Word, but the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirits 
that we are the children of God. Destitute of a resurrection 
in the soul, with the Bible in our hand, and our heads as well 
stored with theoretical knowledge as the Jewish Sanhedrim, 
or as Paul and his instructor, and all the Jewish doctors of 
the law, we shall die in our sins. There is a knowledge 
of God and divine things essentially necessary to be known, 
which is not and cannot be imparted to the heart through 
the medium of the senses by the written Word, and all the 
outward signs and symbols, types and shadows, forms and 
ceremonies on earth; it must be given to the heart by the 
Holy Spirit, and to every one for himself. This is requisite 
to complete the plan of salvation, and to make out the sum 
total of divine instruction. As Christ said after he had 
instructed the people, " It is expedient for you that I go 
away, for if I go not away the comforter will not come 
unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, 
and of righteousness, and of jugment." Here is a teacher 



386 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

for the world in addition to the written Word, and a power 
which operates through the medium of the death and 
resurrection of Christ, in enlightening, renewing, and tilling 
the soul with a lively hope of a glorious future state. With 
this teacher and sauctifier, we can be made partakers of the 
second resurrection, though deprived of the written Word, 
(which is a most precious treasure) ; but deprived of this light 
and sanctifying power, though favored with the letter, we 
cannot know God in the pardon of our sins, but are doomed 
to dark and endless despair. The great essential mystery of 
godliness is only made known to the heart by the immediate 
presence and influence of the Holy Spirit. " To him that 
overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I 
will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name 
written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth 
it." — Rev. ii. 17. " Now we have received, not the spirit of 
the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might 
know the things that are freely given to us of God." — 1 Cor. 
ii. 12. What but this divine communication to the heart 
caused the full soul of Job to break forth in strains evan- 
gelical, and say in anticipation of future glory, " I know 
that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the 
latter day upon the earth : and though after my skin worms 
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : wdiom I 
shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not 
another; though my reins be consumed within me." — Job 
xrx. 25-27. 

For what purpose have such facts been recorded but to 
teach us that spiritual religion is the one thing needful, and 
that it is essentially the same in all ages of the world and in 
all hearts which possess the heavenly treasure. Man was 
formed for the glory of God and to be happy in himself 
throughout his whole nature. As to what the soul was 
made of we are not informed, but we are told the body was 
formed of dust, and both were good and possessed of life 
and enjoyment. Sin destroyed this happiness in both and sub- 
jected both to untold sorrows. The plan of free grace was 
designed to benefit and restore both soul and body to at least 
as high a degree of perfection and enjoyment as was poss- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 387 

essed before the fall. This is both revelation and reason. It is 
more than a matter of conjecture that there never would have 
been a separation of soul and body if man had not sinned, 
because this separation is of itself a wreck of the beautiful 
building of the Creator. Hence, the remedial scheme to be 
ample must not only be adapted to restore the purity but 
also the union. Although multitudes of redeemed souls, 
washed with the blood of the Lamb, have gone to heaven 
from every nation, kingdom, and country, yet none of all 
the number have been fully restored as contemplated in the 
plan of redemption, except such as were translated. There 
remains an important part of the work provided for in the 
gospel yet to be consummated, for which the Lord is pledged 
and will perform in his time. This is the resurrection of the 
body. Peter said of Christ, " Whom the heaven must 
receive, until the times of restitution of all things, which 
God hath spoken by the mouth of all his hoty prophets, 
since the world began." This declaration of Peter not only 
shows that God's word must be fulfilled, but that there is to 
be a grand and glorious finishing work done when the 
Redeemer of the world shall descend from heaven, to which 
he ascended after his resurrection. He calls it the restitu- 
tion of all things. As to this restitution, we know that it 
does not in the remotest sense signify the final salvation of 
all men, hecause in that no part of his Word would be 
fulfilled. No such a word has ever been recorded for our 
benefit as having gone out of his mouth. But his Word 
plainly declares that all the dead shall be raised from both 
sea and land, whether good or bad, and shall stand at the 
judgment-seat of Christ. Now, this being the day of resti- 
tution, and the time appointed for the last change for the 
benefit of this world, and the time when God will wind up 
the plan of salvation and close the complicated affairs of this 
old world, if ever the finally impenitent, who lived and died 
in sin, are to have any change by virtue of the death and 
resurrection of Christ, they will certainly obtain it and rise 
to the resurrection of. life. But if not changed then, and 
the day of restitution finds and leaves them in their sins, 
both soul and body, when will they ever be changed? Never, 



388 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

but must go away into everlasting punishment. The time 
of restitution of all things, therefore, instead of favoring 
universal salvation, only signifies the final wind-up of all 
things, and the complete misery of the wicked and the 
consummate happiness of all the righteous, both soul and 
body. The full measure of God's wrath, as justice demands, 
will never be meted out to the wicked until the resurrection 
and reunion of soul and body in the day of restitution. ]S~or 
will the righteous be complete as contemplated in the p.lan 
of salvation until all that was lost in the fall, and Was 
embraced by faith in the Son of God, is restored, which will 
be done in the day of restitution. The idea of the resurrec- 
tion of the body conveys to the mind the fact that there is 
yet wanting one-half of heaven, until the righteous shall be 
raised in the likeness of the glorified body of the Son of 
God; then it will be complete. God surely would never 
raise our bodies if it were not a great favor and a special 
blessing to us, calculated to highten the joys of heaven. 

In reference to the resurrection of the body and the 
glorified state of the righteous after the reunion of soul and 
body, the beloved disciple says, "Beloved, now are we the 
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: 
but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like 
him; for we shall see him as he is." — 1 John in. 2. Paul 
says, "As we have borne the image of the earthy (man), we 
shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (man Christ). — 
1 Cor. xv. 49. Daniel xn. 2, 3: "And many (or the multi- 
tude) of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, 
some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
contempt. And the}^ that be wise, shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament; and they that turn many to right- 
eousness, as the stars forever and ever." John v. 28, 29 : 
" Marvel not at this : for the hour is coming, in the which 
all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection 
of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection 
of damnation." The quotations given above present to the 
mind the important facts in relation to the day of restitu- 
tion. We see that the sleeping millions will be raised by 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 389 

the Son of God at his second coming, all of them, "both good 
and bad, but not to life and glory. Some will rise to con- 
demnation, contempt, and everlasting misery. But the 
righteous shall come forth in the likeness of the Son of God, 
" for they shall see him as he is and be like him ;" and when 
they see him in the day of restitutfon, they will see him 
with a body shining and all glorious. But it will be the 
same identical body which suffered, died, and rose again; 
for we are told that he who ascended should in like manner 
come again and take his people with him, having immortal 
bodies which will shine as the firmament and like brilliant 
stars forever. 

That all men have bodies in this world is a plain matter 
of fact which we know, and we, moreover, know that it is 
the same identity w T hich is born that dies and slumbers in 
the dust of the earth. This same body which now writes 
and will ere long die, is the identical one that will rise in 
the day of restitution and reunite with the soul that now 
inhabits it. It is I myself that will die, whatever changes 
may take place in vacilating matter; and it is the same I 
myself that will come forth in the day of restitution, and I 
will know within myself that I am the same identity. That 
there will be a marvelous change in the resurrection is a 
glorious truth of God, but that change will not destroy the 
'dentity but retain it. The righteous will see the same 
Christ who redeemed them, and the same Job, Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jocob, with the general assembly of the first- 
born of the Lord, who had part in the first resurrection, all 
shining in immortality when death shall have been swallowed 
up in victory. As to whether reason can or cannot compre- 
hend the mystery of the resurrection is a matter of no 
importance. We have the same evidence to believe the 
doctrine of the resurrection from the dead that we have to 
believe that God made the world at first, and made man out 
of fhe dust of the earth, and certainly the same that we have 
to believe that there is a God, for we have his word for it. 
ISTow, the most that reason has to do with such mysterious 
facts is not to act irrationally, and by a perversion of reason, 
deny ^he truth of God and his being, but in the due exercise 



390 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of enlightened reason, embrace the truth as it is in Jesus 
Christ, and wait in hope till the change come. I have said 
we have the authority of Jehovah's word on which to 
predicate our faith for the certainty of the resurrection, but 
we even have more than that, if possible. "We have that 
word most solemnly sanctioned by one of the most stupen- 
dous miracles ever performed since the world began, the 
resurrection of the Son of God. And as all other miracles 
were performed in confirmation of the truth of God, we 
have them all united with the resurrection of Christ to 
establish the truth of the general resurrection from the 
dead. That the resurrection of Christ was a miracle will 
scarcely be denied by any one who has a well-balanced mind, 
for in it are to be seen all the characteristics of a true mira- 
cle. And Christ, to perpetuate and keep it always before 
our minds, instituted the sacrament of the Supper in com- 
memoration thereof, with the special injunction to continue 
it until his coming. Hence, we are reminded as well of the 
second coming of Christ and the resurrection of our own 
bodies from the grave, as of the death, resurrection, and 
ascension of our Lord. Paul, in establishing the resurrec- 
tion of the dead to the Corinthians, said that he had seen 
him, and that he was seen of above live hundred brethren at 
once, many of whom were living at the time he wrote. And 
all the apostles wrought miracles in the name of him who 
had been dead but was alive again. The resurrection of 
Christ is at once the great hinge upon which everything turns 
in relation to this world, whether in time or eternity. Upon 
this cardinal truth Paul founded all his arguments to 
demonstrate the success and power of the gospel, as well as 
to prove the certainty and blessedness of a future state, and 
concludes that a failure in this one point would result in the 
overthrow of the entire plan of recovery and utter ruin of 
the world. But this being established, all is safe and stands 
as firm as the eternal throne. To all who believe the truth 
of Jehovah, the doctrine of the resurrection of this mortal 
body which is sown in corruption, is placed beyond all doubt, 
for all must know that God is able to raise the dead, and if 
he should but command it, the work will be done. We are 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 391 

positively told that he will do this, " for all that are in their 
graves shall hear his voice and come forth." Paul, in his 
touching appeal to King Agrippa, said, " Why should it be 
thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise 
the dead?" to which the king finally responded, "Almost 
thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Who that is wise 
would not be altogether a Christian, if the resurrection is 
true and there is a certainty of glory and eternal life for 
both soul and body? The substance of all that has ever 
been urged against the doctrine, was urged by some proud 
pharisees in the presence of our Lord, when they inquired 
of him whose wife that woman would be in the resurrection, 
who had in her day seven husbands. He replied, "Ye do 
err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. 
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in 
marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." After 
having charged them with ignorance of both God and his 
word, he urged an argument in proof of the doctrine 
founded upon a fact which they did not dare deny. He said, 
"As touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read 
that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God 
of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? 
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." ' The 
force of this argument in proof of the resurrection may 
readily be perceived by the most common mind. It was 
mainly a quotation from Exodus. Before Moses went into 
Egypt as the instrument, of God in delivering Israel, while 
standing near Mount Horeb, he saw a burning bush and 
heard the voice of God in the language of the text. This 
was" long after the death of those patriarchs. Yet we are 
toid that he who spake said he was the God of Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob. And Christ says he is not the God of the 
dead but of the living. From all of which we are to under- 
stand that the living God recognised the souls of those men 
as living souls, and pledged the veracity of the Godhead for 
the resurrection of their bodies, for their souls were not the 
men, but parts of them. The soul of Abraham was not 
Abraham. Abraham had a body as well as a soul, and both 
of these constituted Abraham, and the living God would 



392 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

have the same identical man. The same argument, however, 
is urged in proof of the general resurrection "by the Son of 
God, for it stands connected with the plan of salvation and 
with a future state, and its certainty is founded upon the 
power and truth of the Almighty ; and if the dead are not all 
raised it will be because these both fail. Some philosophers 
in Paul's day were vain enough, and ignorant enough of the 
Scriptures and the power of God, to ask, How are the dead 
raised, and with what body do they come? and it may be 
that there are many such at this day. For the benefit of 
such I would say, They will be raised up by the power that 
made all things at first, and they will come forth, every man 
in his own order ; they that have done good and followed 
the Lamb to the resurrection of life, and they that set all his 
counsel aside and did despite to the Holy Spirit to the 
resurrection of damnation. " For God shall bring every 
work into judgment with every secret thing, whether if be 
good, or whether it be evil." It doth not now appear what 
the righteous shall be, nor what shall be their reward, 
but the fact is known that they shall be like Jesus, and 
their reward will be great; they shall have an eternal weight 
of glory, being joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. 

From pure love and friendship, it has been matter of no 
small degree of solicitude with many, if not with all Chris- 
tians, to know whether saints in a glorified state will 
recognize each other. That which religiously delights the 
saints on earth will doubtless delight them in heaven, only 
in a higher degree; and as society and the power of recog- 
nition constitute no small part of their comfort here, it will 
not be denied them there. And, moreover, it is certain that 
they will be much wiser in heaven than they are on earth. 
Paul says, "For now we see through a glass darkly; but 
then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I 
know even as also I am known." — 1 Cor. xiii. 12. To say 
the very least of this passage of Scripture, it clearly proves 
that the saints will know vastly more in a glorified state 
than in this life; and that they will know Jesus, who 
redeemed and washed them in his own blood, and those who 
toiled and suffered with them in this life far better in the 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 393' 

next, is clearly demonstrated by many facts recorded in the 
Bible. Of these facts I feel as well assured as I do of the 
truth of revelation, the immortality, the resurrection from 
the dead, and the glorified state of the saints in light. At 
our Lord's transfiguration, Moses and Elias made their 
appearance and were recognized as themselves by some gift 
which God saw proper to impart even to men who before 
that time had never seen them. The rich man, Lazarus, and 
Abraham are represented as knowing each other in a future 
state; and our Lord said to certain Jews that they should 
see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven 
while they themselves should be shut out. The words, 
"know as we are known," not only imply that Christ will 
know his saints, but that they shall both know and be 
known by each other, and also remember the toils and cares 
of those whose energies were consecrated for their salvation. 
The power of knowing and remembering belong as facts 
both to saints in heaven and also to lost sinners in hell, as 
instruments of pleasure or pain. Whenever knowledge and 
memory fail, the medium of happiness to saints and that of 
misery to the wicked must end. If saints in heaven and lost 
spirits in hell may know each other in a disembodied state 
as the Bible represents, we cannot reasonably infer that they 
will not recognize each other after the resurrection. Christ, 
we know, was not recognized for a time by Mary after his 
resurrection, and others of his disciples conversed with him 
and knew not that it was he at the time, but we are told that 
their eyes were holden. They were afterwards enabled to 
know him when their eyes were opened. By the same 
power which enabled them to know him who died for us 
and rose again, we shall know also. This is the power 
w T hich raised Christ from the dead; it is the resurrecting 
arm which does all the resurrecting work throughout the 
moral empire of Jehovah. God sent this divine influence to 
seal forever upon the page of inspiration the truth of the 
resurrection and ascension of Christ, and to be a witness of 
our resurrection by virtue of Christ, as well as to evolve the 
truth to the world and to sanctify all that believe in his 
name. Founded upon this fact is the doctrine of the resur- 
26 



394 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

rection of both soul and body. Hence, it cannot be a 
matter of conjecture and speculation, but an important 
truth, that those who obtain a saving part in the first 
resurrection must have some sweet foretaste of the second 
by the power and influence that performs both. The 
Christian, therefore, has present joy in the Holy Ghost, 
which is increased by his faith and hope which take hold 
of and anchor into him within the vail, and gives to the 
heart united to Chaist the blessed assurance of the full 
weight of glory in the day of restitution. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 395 



LECTURE XXII.— FINAL JUDGMENT. 



After the resurrection and in immediate connection with 
it will be the final judgment, and the former will be the 
extent as well as an elementary part and basis of the law of 
righteous judgment. The certainty of a judgment is not a 
discovery of reason, but a special revelation from God. Rev- 
elation furnishes the truth, with the seal and impress of 
Jehovah upon it, that there will be a general judgment iu the 
future, to which the Holy Spirit unites in testimony and 
energy to the hearts of all who will appear before the Judge. 
Reason, while she could not make the discovery, may be 
solemnly impressed with the fact and led to meet the ordeal 
in safety, and profit as much as if she had made the discovery 
by her own effort. 

1. Then, the certainty of the judgment as it is revealed 
to us: "For God shall bring every work into judgment, 
with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it 
be evil." " Because he hath appointed a day in the which 
he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom 
he hath ordained : whereof he hath given assurance unto 
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." "For 
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ: 
that every one may receive the things done in his body, 
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 
— Ec. xii. 14, Acts xvn. 31, 2 Cor. v. 10. See Matt. xxv. 
As to the day when the appointment was made, we know 
as little as we do of the day appointed, but are as well 
assured that it will come as we are that it was ordained ; be- 
cause God ordained it. 

2. It will be general. All this world will appear before 
the Judge, to say nothing of angels, to pass the solemn 
assize. Notwithstanding it is true that God appointed the 



396 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

judgment, it can be no less true that the decree was passed 
by the immutable rectitude of his nature for the good of 
the universe, and as well with regard to the free agency 
of his creatures as for the maintainance of good govern- 
ment and order. The appointment, therefore, for a general 
judgment takes in, as it must, the righteous Judge who is to 
administer justice; the law of administration with all its con- 
comitants and essential elements; the entire family to be 
judged; their relation to the immutable principle of right, 
and all the means and mercies provided for the great whole, 
and for each one that constitutes it. This will all be called 
up in the great day of retribution, when God shall judge the 
world. But what assurance has God given us that this whole 
world will be judged, other than, his infallible word ? He has 
given us in confirmation of his word miraculous proof, by one 
of the greatest miracles that ever was wrought since the 
world began, and one which constitutes a vital element of 
the gospel of his grace, and one which demonstrates that all 
who have any assurance from it of a general judgment, and 
who will be effected in any way by it in either soul or body, 
were fully interested in all the essential provisions of the 
gospel. It is the resurrection of Christ from the dead after 
he had said, It is finished, and gave up the ghost. This, as 
the Bible teaches, not only proves that God will judge the 
world by Christ, who died and rose again ; but it is an assu- 
rance from God to all men who will rise and come to the 
judgment seat of Christ, that he both died and rose for them. 
As Paul says, " Whereof he hath given assurance unto all 
men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." We see that 
all before the judgment, will be resurrected and that their 
resurrection is based on the resurrection of Christ, who died 
for them and rose again, and that he who did this will be the 
judge. But the question is, How has God given an assu- 
rance of the general judgment based on the resurrection of 
his Son, to all men? Some divines suppose it to be accom- 
plished by his written Word — that he has commanded and his 
gospel will, be preached to all the world, to every creature, 
and in this way the assurance will be given to ail men. But 
here I am presented with an insurmountable difficulty. The 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 397 

assurance upon gospel principles of a general judgment not 
only takes in all nations as such, but the very language used 
and all the circumstances connected with it, manifestly convey 
to my mind the clear conviction that the assurance must in 
some gracious way be given to each one who is to appear in 
the judgment in due time — yes in this life. If this is true, 
as I doubt not it is, it does not appear to have been accom- 
plished by the preached Word, nor is it likely to be. To limit 
the assurance to a less number than God designs to judge, is 
not to interpret the Scriptures, but to contradict them. For 
the assurance of a general judgment is not only founded upon 
an eternal principle of right, but is also based upon the resur- 
rection of Christ, and measured by it both in extent and 
rectitude, and we have just the same authority to limit both 
the judgment and the resurrection to a part of this world 
that we have to limit the assurance. Now, as God has seen 
tit to testify and establish the truth of a general judgment 
by one of the most essential principles of the gospel, that fact 
of itself fully demonstrates that all have as certainly been 
provided for in the gospel as that they are assured of a judg- 
ment on that ground. And it is, moreover, as well attested 
by that assurance that salvation was made possible for them 
in some way in harmony with the gospel, as it is that God 
will administer justice to them in the day of retribution. 
The assurance given to all of a future judgment through the 
medium of the resurrection of Christ, implies more than a 
bare notice of the fact: it implies an ample remedy provided 
for the subjects of the judgment, by which they may be pre- 
pared for the solemn ordeal. The Bible informs us what that 
assurance is, and how it is given to all men. It is conviction 
of sin, and is given by the Holy Spirit to all this world, as 
will be seen. John xvi. 8, 9, 10, 11, Christ, speaking of the 
Holy Spirit, says, " And when he is come he will reprove 
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of 
sin, because they believe not on me : of righteousness, 
because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more : of judg- 
ment, because the prince of this world is judged.' 1 Here is 
conviction for sin, the remedy for sin through the riguteous- 
ness of him who ascended to the Father, and a general 



398 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

judgment, all established in each heart by the Holy Spirit. 
This assurance is given to men, not to devils. No other doc- 
trine is taught by such language of Jesus Christ, and no other 
true exposition of it can be given than that God, who is om- 
nipresent, moves upon the hearts of all men everywhere in a 
way of mercy through the plan of free grace, and affords them 
the means of preparing for death and judgment. And those 
who hold and teach anything less than this must, as they do, 
contradict God in the declaration he has made, when he says : 
" My ways are equal." How, I ask, can his ways be equal, 
when he will judge the world in righteousness and condemn 
the wicked and send them to hell for their sins, and at the 
same time there be no possible means of salvation for them, 
which he must and will decide ? It is not true that the Judge 
will condemn any of the race for Adam's sin, nor is it true that 
he will condemn anyone for anything, or for all which Christ did 
for the redemption of the world, when all the essential means 
of efficiency were withheld, and they bound up in the black 
chains of fate. Nor could the death, resurrection, ascension, 
and intercession of Christ, nor the influence of the Holy 
Spirit, have any bearing upon such as never had any light of 
the Spirit with a gracious design, in the day of final accounts ; 
nor will any consistent divine hazard the assertion. Such 
persons have no account to render in consideration of any- 
thing which Christ did, nor can he judge them and bear true 
testimony against them. 

In the first epistle of Peter we have this remarkable pas- 
sage of Scripture (chap. in. 18-20): "For Christ also hath 
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might 
bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but quick- 
ened by the Spirit : by which also he went and preached 
unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, 
when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of 
Noah, while the ark was a preparing." And chap. iv. 6 : 
" For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that 
are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the 
flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit." In the narrow 
compass of four verses given above, it is twice affirmed that 
beings then in the place of departed spirits had been preached 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 399 

to, and in one place it is said the gospel was preached unto 
them. Some of these beings were ante-deluvians; where the 
the others had lived we are not informed, only they were all 
in the world of spirits at the time Peter wrote. It is also 
certain that it was the blessed gospel that was preached to 
them all, whenever that may have been, and the Eternal 
Spirit was the preacher, whether it was done through human 
instrumentality or not. Peter says in so many words that the 
Spirit that quickened Christ and raised him from the dead, is 
the same that preached to the ante-deluvians ; and we are cer- 
tain the same Spirit does all the preaching at the present day 
which the Lord will own. Let it not be overlooked that this 
preaching had a special reference to the final judgment-day, 
and the language used clearly indicates that the means were 
afforded to enable them to live according to God in the Spirit, 
forasmuch as God would judge them according to men in the 
flesh, or as he would all others of the race, whose trial is 
given them while in the flesh. Now, whether this was done, 
or the gospel was preached unto them before or after they 
died, is the question : for it appears that the Lord God will 
not only warn all men of a day of retribution, but with that 
warning he will afford them the means of a possible salvation 
before he calls them into judgment. If the Word of God 
establishes this sentiment, it evidently settles another point, 
i. e., that if this warning and possible salvation be not 
afforded in this life, it will be in the next. For it is said 
"that he commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because 
he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world 
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained," etc. 
And that the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath ap- 
peared unto all men, teaching us that we should live soberly, 
righteously, and godly, in this present world. There is not 
the shadow of evidence in the "Word of God that the ante- 
deluvian spirits said to be in prison, were the subjects of the 
ministry of the spirit of Christ, either at the time Christ's 
body was under the power of death, or at any other time 
after the flood ; for we are told that it was done before the 
flood, while the ark was being made. From all that is said, 
therefore, we are to understand that their spirits — souls — were 



400 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

spiritually warned, and had the offer of life while they were 
in this great prison-house, and that this continued until the 
ark was finished and the flood came; then their merciful vis- 
itation ended. The idea of spirits in a departed state being 
the subjects of the ministry of Jesus Christ in any way of 
mercy, is popish mummery, designed to fill Romish coffers to 
fatten an unsanctified priesthood. But the truth of Heaven 
fully establishes the fact that all men whom God will judge 
in the united capacity of soul and body, are in some way 
warned by him who is omnipresent, and tendered with mercy 
while in the flesh. " For this cause was the gospel preached 
to them that are dead (but it was done before they died) that 
they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live 
according to God in the spirit." It does appear that the gos- 
pel is in some way presented to all men before death ; it was 
so in the ante deluvian world, and it has been so since that 
time down to the days when the apostles- wrote, and will con- 
tinue to be so to the end of the world; and no other inter- 
pretation can be fairly given of some portions of the sacred 
canon. "What other interpretation can be given of the 
passage above, than that the gospel was preached, to some at 
least of our race, either before they died or after death, whose 
salvation does not appear to be certain by any means? But 
we are told that it was done that they might live according to 
God in the spirit, forasmuch as they will be judged according 
to men in the flesh. There does not appear to be any serious 
controversy among orthodox Christians as to whether the 
resurrection from the dead and the final judgment will be 
general — all are ageed that the entire race will stand at the 
judgment seat of Christ. Yet there may be, and doubtless is, 
a very wide difference in opinion as to whether Christ died 
for all that they might be saved. From all the light we have 
in the Bible, there are only two visible considerations for 
which men will be judged and condemned, i. e., either it must 
be for Adam's sin or for their own personal transgressions. 

Here it appears necessary to consider the rule of judgment. 
It is next to certain that some Christians of hio-h attainments 
have supposed there would be at least two laws by which God 
would judge the world — the law of nature and the moral law. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 401 

In reference to the law of nature I will say, it neither defines 
the moral quality of actions, nor does it obligate us to love 
either God or man — it was designed for the government of 
matter and irrational animals, and not for the government of 
moral agents. Obedience to its requirements is no virtue, 
and disobedience no crime, and a judgment founded on such 
a basis would be as unmeaning as a judgment for the moun- 
tains of the earth, the clouds of heaven, or the beasts of the 
field. The moral law extends to all, and requires all rational 
beings to love and obey God, and to love our neighbor as our- 
self. " On these two, hang all the law and the prophets." 
This holy law includes all that is contained in the Bible, ap- 
proves all that is good in the universe, and condemns the evil ; 
it is the rule of action and the law of the final judgment. 
Forasmuch as all the prophets and other regulations for the 
moral world are hinged upon this, it certainly is the law of 
the final judgment, and the same that Paul says was written 
in the heart of the Gentiles, who had not the letter or writ- 
ten Word. " For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, 
do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having 
not the law, are a law unto themselves ; which shew the works 
of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bear- 
ing witness, and their thoughts meanwhile accusing, or else 
excusing one another; in the day when God shall judge the 
secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." — 
Rom. ii. 14-16. All men are to appear at the judgment- 
seat of Christ, that they may receive according to the deeds 
done it the body, whether they be good or bad. The law of 
the righteous judgment is the same, whether written or un- 
written, and will be recognized by both Jews and Gentiles as 
the very same perfect rule of right, in the day when God 
shall judge the secrets of all hearts by Jesus Christ. While 
we are informed of a general judgment it must by no means 
be overlooked that the gospel will be brought up in that day, 
and all will be judged according to the gospel as well as the 
law. It is not the letter of the law which constitutes the law, 
but it is constituted by its essential and eternal principles, 
w T hile the letter is only a declaration of these principles. The 
same position holds good in reference to the gospel : it is the 



402 - MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

saving grace of God secured by his Son, which constitutes 
the essential elements of the gospel, and not the letter. No 
one of our race has ever yet been saved by the law of nature, 
or any other law ; for there is no law given which can give 
life. All that have escaped from the dominion of sin have 
been delivered by the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for 
there is no other name given under heaven whereby we can 
be saved. I am well aware that many teachers in Israel do 
not admit that saving grace was provided for all the race of 
man, but they contend that it was not, and even if it was 
provided in some sense for all, they limit the saving applica- 
tion of it to the written Word or preached gospel. But when 
we look into this matter with a little care, we have the proof 
at hand, and such as these divines will admit to be true; that 
their sentiment, in the first place, is not sound, and that sal- 
vation is not limited to the written Word ; for they will admit 
with pleasure that all infants dying in infancy, whether in 
this or any other land, are saved by the grace of the gospel 
of the Son of God. This being admitted, it most effectually 
overthrows the system which limits saving grace to the letter 
of the gospel. If salvation is possible without the written 
Word, it may be asked, Why send the Bible to the heathen ? 
I am willing that Paul shall answer this very question, which 
he has done in consecutive order: "What advantage, then, 
hath the Jew ? or what profit is there of circumcision ? Much 
every way: chiefly because that unto them were committed 
the oracles of God." The oracles of God, we are informed, 
are a great favor, yet the apostle does not by any means limit 
salvation to the circulation of the oracles. I do not in this 
place contend so much for the extent of a possible salvation 
in view of the doctrine as such, as for the purpose of defend- 
ing a great principle in the moral government of Jehovah, 
often referred to in the Bible,* and never left out of view when 
the final judgment is spoken of, but is emphatically made the 
basis and hinge upon which the destiny of all the race will 
finally turn in the great day. " God," we are informed, " will 
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath 
ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in 
that he hath raised him from the dead." It is positively said 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 403 

the secrets of all hearts will be judged according to the gos- 
pel, and Jesus Christ will be the judge. It must, therefore, 
be considered in this light : that the Judge himself died in 
the fullest sense for all this world, and rose again, and by his 
own arm he brought salvation and placed it at the door of 
every sinner whom he will raise from the dead; and when he 
passes sentence against the unholy, it will be on righteous 
principles, and they will be justly sentenced to eternal pun- 
ishment; not because Adam sinned, but because the Judge 
himself redeemed them from the curse of the law and brought 
in everlasting righteousness, and offered them salvation on the 
broad and firm basis of the everlasting covenant. 

Whatever may be the opinions of men in relation to this 
matter, we are nevertheless certain, and have full confidence 
in the Judge, that he knows whether he did die for all men, 
and rise again for them, and whether he ever made salvation 
truly possible for them. If so, and they rejected it, he will 
condemn them for it; but if not, he never will bring such an 
untrue and unrighteous charge against them. The moral law 
is the standard of all perfection, but it provides no remedy 
for anyone — "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." The 
just cause of man's condemnation in the final judgment will 
be the rejection of the Son of God and free grace. Where 
the condition of any people is more or less favorable, accord- 
ing to the gifts God will require ; where much is given much 
will be required, and where little is given little will be 
required; and if it were so that God had given nothing to a 
part of the race, according to his own published rule, he will 
require nothing. ]STo grace, therefore, to afford a possible 
salvation ; no heaven, no hell. Where there is no real ground 
of justification, there can be no just ground of condemnation. 
Rev. xx. 12 : " And I saw the dead, small and great, stand 
before God; and the books were opened ; and another book 
was opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were 
judged out of those things which were written in the books, 
according to their works." These books contain facts which 
are to be made manifest in the day of judgment, in favor of 
some, and against others ; all showing the just decision of the 
righteous Judge in saving the righteous and punishing the 



404 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

wicked. At the same time it is true that all these facts are 
recorded in the mind of the Judge, whose divine perfections 
exercised in view of what he has done for the salvation of the 
world, must result in the salvation of all who accepted free 
grace, and the damnation of those who refused it. The pro- 
priety and necessity of such a day may be considered next. 

The necessity of a day of retribution has not been fully com- 
prehended, even by those who believe the truth ; nor do I 
propose anything more than a few plain arguments in relation 
to the necessity of the general judgment. The condition of 
departed spirits will by no means be changed after a separa- 
tion from the body, but will continue either happy or miserable 
forever. It has, therefore, been the subject of anxious inqui- 
ry, why there should be a judgment, when the righteous go 
immediately after death to heaven where Jesus is, and the 
wicked to perdition where they are tormented in the flames 
of hell. Indeed, some minds have been inclined to suppose 
that the sentence is passed by the Judge at, or before, death, 
and others have contended that the righteous Judge decided 
and fixed the destiny of all men from eternity — the doom of 
each one was unalterably fixed countless ages before they had 
any being. Here is one reason why there ought to be a future 
general judgment. If God has so ordained, it ought to be 
made known, among other things in the general judgment, 
that all may know that some of the race were formed for hell 
without any mixture of mercy, which would be nothing but 
truth and righteousness, for such ought not to be charged 
with their own destruction. But if such a sentiment is false, 
it ought to be corrected for the honor of God and the defense 
of the truth before men and angels, for it is certainly a very 
grave charge against Jehovah. A general judgment was de- 
signed for the manifestation of the glorious perfections of the 
Godhead, to defend the rights of the divine throne, to correct 
the errors, evils, and the maladministrations of the empire of 
God, and to mete out to all their dues. This will be done 
with such full light as to make all, both good and bad, see 
and confess that the Lord God is holy, just, and good in all 
his works and ways. Behold, the Lord cometh with ten 
thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 405 

convince all that are ungodly among them of all their 
ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and 
of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have 
spoken against him." — Jude 14, 15. Wicked men have 
charged God with their sins, with injustice, and with their 
destruction and misery — they have said that his ways are not 
equal, and that he is partial in his dealings with his creatures, 
and they have even charged him with forming alliances with 
Satan, with tyranny, and oppression. The Judge of all the 
earth will do right, and will convince the assembled universe 
that he is holy and just and they shall all say amen to the 
final sentence. The human family were formed with bodies 
and souls, and he who came to redeem them had a soul and 
body, as well as a divine nature — he was God manifest 
in the flesh. In this capacity he redeemed all the race, and 
will raise them all from the dead and judge them all in the 
united capacity of soul and bod) 7 . He who is to judge them 
is the same who died for them and rose again, and he will 
appear with the same body in the judgment which suffered on 
the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven ; and 
every eye shall see him and know that he is the Lord who re- 
deemed them. Men do greatly err when they suppose that 
God has pre-judged the world and fixed the destiny of all, 
for it is written: " The Father juclgeth no man, but hath 
committed all judgment uuto the Son ; that all men should 
honor the Son even as they honor the Father." As God has 
set the time, nothing is to be judged before the time appointed, 
and the judgment day will as certainly come as the day of 
atonement came ; and he who made the atonement will come 
in the same person to judge the world for whom he died and 
rose again. Then it will be seen that all who are saved are 
saved by his blood, and all that are damned are justly sen- 
tenced to hell for their own voluntary sins in rejecting the 
blood of Christ which was shed for them, and graciously and 
fully offered to them: and this will be their condemnation, 
and the only just cause of their ruin, while other sins will 
only be appendages. At death the saints are taken to heaven, 
being qualified for the place, and the wicked are sent to hell, 
having no qualifications for heaven ; but neither the one nor 



406 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

the other have their full reward, nor will they have until the 
resurrection and reunion of soul and body. 

It does appear from the Word of God that saints will rise 
first, but how long before the wicked will be raised, we are 
not informed; it cannot be long, because they will all stand 
before the judgment seat of Christ at the same time, as ap- 
pears from the Scriptures of Truth : " When the Son of man 
shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then 
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him 
shall be gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them one 
from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the 
goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the 
goats on his left." — Matt. xxv. 31-33. In the forty-sixth 
verse we are told how the Judge disposes of that large mul- 
titude : First to the wicked — " These shall go away into 
everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." 
The punishment of the wicked will be as eternal as the life 
and blessedness of the righteous, and the Judge will be glori- 
fied by the sentence. 



SECTION VII. 



LECTURE XXIIL— THE DOCTRINE OF THE 
TRINITY.— IN THREE PARTS. 



1. The Being of God. 2. The Unoriginated Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
3. The Divinity and Works of the Holy Ghost. 

PART I. — THE BEING OF GOD. 

This is the name, or one of the names, given in the Bible 
to Him who made, upholds, and governs the universe. " God 
made the heavens and the earth; " " God is a spirit; " "the 
Lord our God is one Lord." His existence is the lirst great 
leading truth revealed to man, and constitutes not only the 
main pillar in the great temple of truth, but the very foun- 
dation of all pure and true religion. There is no truth more 
sublime and mysterious, and yet there is none that so univer- 
sally addresses itself to intelligent beings as incontrovertibly 
true. The most mysterious of all truths, and that which 
rises the highest above the comprehension of finite minds, 
is the most overwhelming and closes up every avenue for 
doubt and reasonable controversy. If man believes anything, 
even his own existence, this must connect itself with the 
fact that there is one who existed before him, and the fact 
impressed upon his mind that he did not create himself, and 
cannot now create his like or anything else, necessarily leads 
the mind to the full conviction that the same is true ot all 
other beings and things that do now or may hereafter exist, 
except one, and that he neither made himself nor was he 
made by another, but did exist from eternity, and is the first 

(407) 



408 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

great cause of all other beings and things. A man who 
denies his own existence may well be called a fool, and he 
who admits his own existence and denies the existence of the 
Eternal One, knowing at the same time that he did not 
make himself, and that nothing cannot produce something, 
must, in Bible language, be a fool. The mind of man is 
as fully convinced that other beings and things did not 
create themselves as that he did not create himself, for he 
cannot conceive of a being, however great and powerful, 
who was competent to create himself, for he could not create 
without power, and there could be no power without existence. 
Then, as nothing cannot produce something, and a thing can- 
not be and not be at the same time, or exist before it does, it 
must be as certain as existence itself that one there is who 
existed from all eternity, and all other beings were made by 
him, and are under obligations to love and adore him. 

All men feel their dependence upon some being, and have 
in all ages been inclined to worship in some way as demon- 
stration of the fact. The first legitimate workings of the 
infant mind is in that direction, and on beholding the works 
of creation and the works of art, it inquires who made this 
and who made that. On being told who made the house, 
not satisfied yet, it wishes to know who made him who built 
the house, and so it rises from one thing to another until it 
comes to the beginning of creation, when all created things 
began to be, and there makes a pause to inquire who made 
all things that came to be, and how he made all things, or 
who made him. The answer must be either that he is 
eternal and was not made or that he made himself. Here 
the mind rejects the latter and embraces the former, and 
never can change while reason sits regent upon the throne. 

There is one thing which the rational mind will always 
reject and another which it will as certainly believe to be true, 
The first is that of self-production in all cases whatever, and 
the second is that of the eternal first cause of all things, 
who is uncaused, whether he he called I Am, Lord, or God. 
He who exists from eternity, and exists everywhere, gives 
evidence of his existence in every part of the universe where 
he requires any obedience and homage. For we cannot well 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 409 

believe that he exists everywhere and requires homage from 
all his intelligent creatures, and yet leaves many of them in 
utter darkness, and gives them no evidence of any obliga- 
tions whatever, no not even of his existence. This is what no 
sound mind can well believe. Those who would worship God, 
and are obligated to do so, must come to him, and all who 
would or do come to him, must believe that he is, and not 
only so, but that he is a rewarder of all them who diligently 
seek him. Now, if he calls upon all to come unto him and 
give unto him the glory that is due unto him, declaring at 
the same time that he is God, and beside him there is none 
else — no God — this exhibits both the object of worship and 
and the obligation, and makes the creature responsible, but 
not otherwise. Hence we conclude that God would make 
his existence manifest to all, and give some knowledge of 
his will to all of whom he requires anything, as the Bible 
declares he has done. As it is written, " The heavens 
declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his 
handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto 
night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language 
where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out 
through all the earth, and their words to the end of the 
world." — Psa. xix. 1-4. The proof is clear that God pro- 
claims his existence by and through his works of creation to 
his rational creatures throughout this world, and that all 
who have day and night, summer and winter, seed time and 
harvest, have a knowledge of God. But we have not only 
proof that all have a knowledge of his being, but they have 
a knowledge of his good will and pleasure, for Paul says, 
" Because that which may be known of God is manifest in 
them,, for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible 
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly 
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his 
eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without 
excuse. Because that when they knew God, they glorified 
him not as God." — Rom. i. 19-21. This epistle, written to 
the Gentiles, as a matter of course takes in all the Gentiles, 
and certainly was true of the Jews, forasmuch as he takes 
in all from the creation of the world. It will be seen, there- 
27 



410 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

fore, that all had a knowledge of God, and some knowledge 
of his will and of their obligation to him, for it is said that 
he showed it unto them, revealed it, made it known, so they 
were without excuse for their disobedience. But it is said 
that they knew him, but glorified him not as God, neither 
were thankful. From the above scripture it is plain that 
while it is said they had a knowledge of the Creator, of his 
eternal power and Godhead, through and by his works or 
the things he has made, there is clear evidence of the fact 
that there was and yet is a divine energy exerted upon their 
minds, which was altogether superior to created things, and 
without which they never could have had such a knowledge 
of God and of their obligation to him as to be without 
excuse in case of disobedience and justly liable to punish- 
ment. If there was such an influence then, it must be so 
now, where there is no written law or preached Word, it 
being as absolutely necessary now as then. And this will 
appear the more reasonable when we see that such an energy 
is necessary when we have the written law and the preached 
gospel, and yet are not without excuse while unmoved and 
unenlightened by the Holy Spirit. If his influence is 
requisite in one case, it must be in all, for no one can come 
unto the Father but by Christ, nor then unless he is drawn. 

To show more conclusively that the heathen had some- 
thing more than the volume of nature to lead them to a 
knowledge of God and their obligations to him, let us hear 
again the voice of revelation. "For when the Gentiles, 
which have not the law, do by. nature the things contained 
in the \nw, these having not the law, are a law unto them- 
selves, which show, the work of the law written in their 
hearts, their conscience also hearing witness, and their 
thoughts mean while accusing, or else excusing one another." 
— Rom. ii. 14, 15. Although it is evident that the works of 
creation declare to all men the being, wisdom, and power of 
God, yet it does not follow, as a matter of course, that they 
would be left without excuse in the day of final accounts, if 
left in that condition to gaze upon the heavens above and 
the earth beneath unaided by the energetic light of him who 
created all things. While the volume of nature leads the 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 411 

rational mind to the contemplation of the Great Supreme, 
there is nothing in all nature to impress the mind with a 
knowledge of the divine will and requirements of Jehovah, 
of the 'creature's obligations, the holiness, justice, and 
goodness of God, his willingness to save, of a day of judg- 
ment, of future rewards and punishment, or the means of 
grace to impart salvation to the soul. Can a bare knowl- 
edge of God, by the works of nature, place any one in 
such a condition as to be guilty, and without excuse or plea 
in the day of judgment, when it is a fact that none of all 
our race can be saved without grace or the sanctifying 
power of the Holy Ghost? The advocates of what is 
called natural religion have been too much inclined to 
favor the notion that man could be saved by following the 
light of nature, unaided by the grace of God and the light 
and power of the Holy Spirit. But the Word of God 
gives no sanction to a'ny such opinions, but teaches the 
absolute necessity of the Spirit's influence and the purifying 
power of the blood of Christ in all cases and in all ages, 
whether men have or have not the letter of the law and the 
letter of the gospel. None can be saved by their own works 
or the works of nature, nor by both together, but by the 
renewing of the Holy Spirit. Now, when we consider well 
those texts which have been adduced to prove that all men 
have a knowledge of the eternal power and Godhead of the 
Creator, we see that there is something more spoken of than 
the works of nature. The energy of him who made nature 
and operates and speaks through nature, evidently operates 
upon the souls of all men, and certainly upon those who have 
not the written law, "and writes his law in their hearts," as 
Paul says. This is not the work of nature nor of pen and 
ink, but the work of the Spirit of the living God impressing 
upon the heart a knowledge of the divine will, of creature 
responsibility, and of salvation offered, so that they may 
yield their hearts to God, be renewed by the Spirit, and show 
the works of the law with a good and approving conscience 
in love to God and love to man. Consequently, by disobe- 
dience they are without excuse, have a guilty conscience, are 
self-condemned, and will be righteously condemned by the 



412 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Lord, "because when they knew God, they glorified him 
not as God," etc. " If our hearts condemn us, God is greater 
than our hearts, and will condemn us also." If it has been 
shown that all men have a knowledge of the being of God 
through and by the things that are made, certainly it must 
be admitted that the Spirit's influence was given to extend 
that knowledge so far as was necessary to place them in 
a salvable state, to make known unto them thewill of 
God, their obligations to him, and make them proper subjects 
of rewards and punishments. When we see that the same 
scripture and arguments which go to prove the one, are 
equally clear proof of the other, and united they stand but 
divided they fall, then, in view of the final judgment, what 
is the difference between natural and revealed religion ? 
The answer is this, " For as many as have sinned without 
law (the written law), shall also perish without law; and as 
many as have sinned in the law (the written law), shall be 
judged by the law." — Rom. n. 12. 

We see that all will be judged according to righteousness. 
Where much is given much will be required, and where less is 
given less will be required in the way of duty, but not in holi- 
ness, as none can be saved without it. It will be remembered, 
however, that all who have any possible salvation have it by 
the same blood and sanctifying Spirit, whether they have or 
have not the written Word or law, and all have the law 
written in their hearts, as Paul says. But while this is true, 
we see that some have not the written law, and the time was 
when none had it. Therefore, those who have both the spirit 
and letter of the law will be judged by the letter, while such 
as have only the spirit, but not the letter, will be judged by 
the spirit of the law and not the letter. Hence, the principal 
difference between natural and revealed religion, in view of 
the last judgment, is as the difference between a written 
revelation and none in letter. But in the atonement of 
Christ and the influence and sanctifying power of the Spirit 
we can see none, and certainly none as to purity of heart 
aud fitness for heaven. u Blessed are the pure in heart, for 
they shall see God." 

ISTow, if it should be asked, What will that knowledge 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 413 

which the Gentiles have of the wisdom and power of God 
by the works of nature benefit them, unaided by the grace 
and Spirit of the Lord? I answer, Just as much as the 
knowledge which others have both by the volume of 
nature and revelation when the influence of the Spirit is 
withheld. The condition in both cases is alike gloomy. All 
depends at last upon the influence of the Spirit and not upon 
reason or abstract facts. 

Whatever may be the amount of knowledge which we 
may attain by the light of nature or the additional light of 
revelation, it all amounts to nothing and is of no avail at 
last, if our salvation depends upon the sanctifying power of 
the Spirit and that should not be afforded; and volumes 
written and long years spent in extolling either or both 
would be that much lost and nothing gained. I am, there- 
fore, more concerned about the light and power of the Holy 
Spirit, so essential to salvation in every case, whether it 
shine with brightness and operate with power through the 
medium of creation or that of revelation or both. This is 
the grand matter at last, and the hinge upon w T hich all turns 
that immediately concerns us. To know that our salvation 
is possible makes life sweet and existence a blessing. This 
truth is proclaimed by him who has proclaimed his own 
existence through the works of nature and the volume of 
revelation, and i,s as clear as either and as certain as all, and 
stands or falls with the truth of God proclaimed by himself. 
"As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way 
and live." — Ez. xxxiii. 11. Here Jehovah speaks and pro- 
claims two great leading truths : his own existence first, and 
secondly, the possible salvation of man and his pleasure in 
it, neither of which can be true if the other is false. But 
the first being true, so is the other. By what God has 
revealed of himself, we know that he is and that he is the 
rewarder of all who diligently seek him. As God has seen 
fit to give us a revelation of himself in the Scriptures, it is 
there we may expect to find all that we ought to know of 
him as a system of truth, whether in relation to himself or 
his creatures, to this life or the next. When Moses ascended 



414 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

the mount to receive the law from his mouth and besought 
God to show him his glory, he passed by and proclaimed 
with new and inimitable elequence^ " The Lord, the Lord 
God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in 
goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 
iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means 
clear the guilty." — Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. When Moses on a 
former occasion, being about to appear before Pharaoh as a 
the deliverer of his oppressed brethren, and desiring his 
mission to be sanctioned and sealed by the sender, he asked 
his name : Who shall I say hath sent me? and he said, " Say 
I Am hath sent me unto you." 

From these and other portions of revelation, we may learn 
something of the nature and attributes of God, such as 
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, 
omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, infinity, eter- 
nity, and immutability. His mercy being a manifestation of 
his goodness, we may so consider it. These attributes being 
possessed from eternity and in an infinite degree, are immut- 
able and belong only to God, who is infinite, eternal, and 
unchangeable in his wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good- 
ness, and truth, etc. There is nothing that he does not know, 
nor is there anything which he cannot do, which ought to be 
and is right to be done. He can know and not do, but he 
cannot do without knowing. As he lays no plan without 
wisdom, so he executes no plan without power. Hence, as 
pow r er cannot plan without wisdom, neither can wisdom do 
more than to know and plan independent of power; and as 
wisdom and power are not the same, so knowing and doing 
or bringing things to pass are not the same. Therefore, as 
nothing can come to pass without the knowledge of God, 
and yet many things do come to pass which are opposed to 
his nature and his will, it is certain that while he knew they 
would be, he did not will they should be nor did he put forth 
his power to bring them to pass. When speaking of God's 
plans or purposes and his works, we are not to forget that 
while his attributes are many, his being is one, and that he is 
holy, just, and good, as well as wise and powerful ; and as his 
purposes and plans must be holy, just, and good as well as 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 415 

wise, and that ail must harmonize in whatever he does, it 
must be true that all his plans, purposes, decrees, and works 
are holy, just, and good, and his power could not produce or 
bring anything to pass in which he did not delight as very 
good. 

When we speak of God we speak of one who is infinitely 
perfect, and who cannot sin in purpose, plan, will, decree, or 
power — in ble3sing and cursing, in mercy and in judgment 
always holy. It is not because God is almighty in power 
and above all law and obligation that he cannot sin or do 
evil, but because he is essentially and immutably holy. 
From a fountain infinitely and immutably perfect nothing 
evil or impure can flow. All that originates with him and 
emanates from him bears the divine impress of his nature and 
proclaims the glory of the author, " as the heavens declare 
the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy- 
work." As certainly as God may be known to have being 
through his works of creation, his moral works may be 
known by his moral nature as it has been revealed by him- 
self. It must, therefore, be a great error to ascribe evil to 
God, for he is holy, and will not the Judge of all the earth 
do right? Holiness, justice, goodness, and truth may be 
safely called the law of his nature, and constitute the 
immutable principle and rule of all his actions and always 
agree. The rule and the actions are always alike and must 
be good. It is consistent with the nature of God to purpose 
or plan for the removal and destruction of evil, but not for 
its introduction. We are never to search for the origin and 
introduction of evil in a fountain of infinite purity, neither 
as having been planned, purposed, decreed, and ordained, or 
brought to pass. God's power can no more be employed in 
bringing sin to pass than the law of his nature can be in 
planning it. Therefore, his almighty power is defended 
from the charge and possibility of evil by the immutable 
laws of his nature. In our apprehension of moral good and 
evil, there can be little or no difference between a purpose 
and plan to cause a thing to be and the putting forth of 
power to bring it to pass ; for if evil is the result of the 
power exerted, the same evil existed first in the purpose and 



416 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

in the will of him who purposed. Nor does it alter the case 
to say that one purposed and another being executed it. If 
evil is the result, it may be divided between him who exe- 
cuted and him who planned according to the ability of each, 
but the purposer would seem to be the most guilty, and 
certainly the same rule that condemns the one will the other. 
And surely no one can purpose evil and decree it, and then 
fault the instrument of its execution without faulting him- 
self. The law of God's nature, which is the rule of all his 
plans and actions, is the eternal source and origin of all good, 
which gave expression to his will in the exhibition of his 
law for the government of man, which requires obedience of 
the creature and a nature like his own ; and it is the highest 
perfection of the creature to bear the likeness of the Creator 
and his best obedience to do his will. If this is true, that 
man's best obedience is conformity to the divine will, it 
never can be true that God ever decreed evil or any of the 
sins of men, forasmuch as all his decrees must involve his 
will and the exercise of the perfect law of his nature ; and 
obedience to the decree would, to all intents and purposes, 
be obedience to all the law. 

There is evil in existence, but it did not originate in the 
decrees of God, any more than it did in the infinitely perfect 
law of his nature, for in that case we could not love him, 
nor could we imitate him and not will and decree evil also. 
We hold it as certain that no creature of God can obey his 
decrees and disobey his perfect law in that act; for however 
his decrees and law may be dissimilar in some respects, they 
never can conflict with each other, so as while the one is 
obeyed the other will be disobeyed, and result in evil in one 
way or the other. There appears a difficulty in distinguishing 
between God's foreknowledge and decrees with some minds, 
but to me it is as plain that they are not the same, nor equiv- 
alent to the same, as that two and two make four. Fore- 
knowledge implies nothing but knowing, whereas decreeing 
always implies willing, and I may say working or doing and 
causing to be done. Now, if there is any difference between 
knowing and willing and doing, there is just that difference 
between God's decrees and his foreknowledge. Hence, we 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 417 

say that he knows but does not decree, because he does not 
will that the thing should be, and of course never can exert 
his energy in bringing it to pass. We understand a decree 
thus: There must be a combination of three things — first, 
wisdom to know and plan ; secondly, will to determine what 
must be done; and, thirdly, there must be means or power 
employed for its accomplishment. Now, when we say that 
God knows all things, but did not decree all things, we do it 
advisedly. It is because there are many things that his 
perfect nature could not will and his power execute, and 
although he knew them, his knowledge had no more to do 
with their accomplishment or coming to pass than if it had 
not existed. But in all cases when he decrees, his wisdom 
plans and his will determines, and the result is good like his 
nature and bears his impress. It is not enough for us to 
know that God exists as an infinitely good and perfect being, 
but we need to know something of his will and law concern- 
ing us, our obligations to him, and how we may best glorify 
and enjoy him, both here and hereafter. There is but one 
God, who is the maker of all things, whether they be things 
in heaven or things in earth, visible or invisible; whether 
they be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers, all 
were made by him. He alone is to be worshiped, and will 
not give his glory to another. 

The same revelation which imparts a knowledge of the 
being of God, furnishes evidence equally clear that he is 
three in one and one in three. This is .a high mystery, but 
not more so than the incomprehensible God in one person, 
for while both are matter of pure revelation and rest upon 
equal authority, the mode of existence can no more be com- 
prehended in one case than the other, and are not the less 
true nor to be rejected on that account. The word person is 
used and applied to each distinction in the Godhead for the 
purpose of instruction for the want of a better term. It 
may, however, be remarked that the Father is certainly a 
person according to its theological sense, and if so, there can 
be no impropriety in the application of persons to Son and 
Holy Ghost when it is said they are one. But how one can 
be three and three one is what the mind cannot comprehend 



418 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

here, and it constitutes the ground of objection to the 
doctrine of the Trinity with many, which, as I have said, is 
no more a rational ground of objection than to deny the 
existence of God altogether because he is incomprehensible. 
The Father is called God, the Son is called God, and the 
Holy Ghost is called God. Here are three. There is a 
distinction of three, and these three are one God. There is 
but one infinite essence or body of perfection. This, without 
division or separation, exists in the Father, in the Son, and 
in the Holy Ghost, and constitutes but one God, while it 
constitutes each person God, equal in power and glory, foras- 
much as the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in each 
person. " There are three that bear record in heaven, the 
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are 
one." — 1 John v. 7. Some have objected to the genuineness 
of this passage, but it would not weaken the argument in 
favor of the doctrine of the Trinity if it were not used, 
because the doctrine it proves in a few words is amply sus- 
tained without it just as it presents it; for we see in the 
gospel commission to teach all nations, that the same enjoins 
that they be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is a most solemn act of 
worship due alone to God, but paid alike to three. Now, if 
there were not three, there would, to say the least of it, be 
no propriety in naming three in the administration of the 
ordinance, and if they were not one God in the fullest sense, 
it could not be religious and right to pay them equal homage, 
as we see is the case. 

In the wonderful plan of salvation, as it is presented in 
the Bible, we see that the Father is spoken of as loving the 
world, and sending his Son into the world to redeem sinners. 
The Son is spoken of as coming to do his Father's will and 
to be the Saviour of the world, and the Holy Ghost is sent 
to enlighten all men, to sanctify believers and present them 
perfect in Christ and before the Father. 

I shall, in the next part of this lecture, prove the underived 
and unoriginated divinity of Christ, and in so doing, it is my 
purpose to show that all the attributes and perfections which 
are, upon the authority of revelation, ascribed to the Father, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 419 

are, upon the same authority, ascribed to the Son, and that 
equal honors are paid him. 

PART II. — THE UNORIGINATED DIVINITY OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

The divinity of the Son of God, like the being of the first 
person in the Godhead, is above our reason and comprehen- 
sion, and does not depend upon either or both for its reality 
and demonstration, but upon revelation alone. Yet reason 
has much to do with the testimony which God has seen fit to 
present to the mind for its conviction of the truth. Our 
belief, therefore, of the doctrine depends upon testimony from 
him who is truth itself, whose word cannot be rejected by 
reason properly at home. The whole volume of revelation, 
the Christian religion, and the real divinity of the Son of 
God, are so inseparably connected that neither can be con- 
sistently believed if either is denied. They stand or fall 
together. In view of the importance of this doctrine, we 
may well expect to find the clearest and most convincing tes- 
timony in the Bible in proof of it. 

In the argument I shall notice that there are two whole, 
distinct natures in the person of Christ the Lord — the human 
and the divine, and that the Scriptures often speak of each 
separate and apart from the other, and sometimes of both in 
unison, and they ought to be so considered and applied. 
Christ, as man, is called the Son of man, the seed of the 
woman, the seed of Abraham, and the son of David, his off- 
spring. But he is also called David's Lord, and David, speak- 
ing by inspiration, called him Lord, who is also called his son. 
When our Saviour propounded this to the Jews for their 
solution, saying, " If David, speaking in the Spirit, calleth 
him Lord, how is he then his son?" They answered, they 
could not tell ; nor is it possible for anyone to tell on any other 
ground than that he was both God and man; as man he was 
descended from David, but as God he was David's maker and 
Lord — both the root and offspring of David. Paul says: 
" Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. 
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of 
angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, 



420 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

received up into glory." — Tim. in. 16. Here is a great mys- 
tery ; it is God and man united in one person, yet so as that 
the two natures are distinct and not mixed; this is the medi- 
ator between God and man — the man Christ Jesus, who gave 
himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 

In the above passage three things are proven to be equally 
true. (1) That this is he who died for us and rose again, and 
ascended into heaven. (2) That he is God. (3) That he is 
man. As man he is a member of the race, and could suffer 
and die for him and in his room and stead. But as God, he 
was one with the Father, and could neither suffer nor die ; 
but his divinity constituted his right to lay down his life, and 
the power to take it up again, as well as to give worth and effi- 
cacy to the offering, and to save to the uttermost all that come 
unto God through him. Christ said at one time, " My Father 
is greater than I," and at another, " I and my Father are one." 
All must see that in the one case he alluded to his humanity, 
and in the other to his divinity, forasmuch as divinity is 
greater than humanity, but real divinity is always one, and 
never can be inferior to itself. "Who being in the form of 
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made 
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a 
servant, and was made in the likeness of men," etc — Phi. n. 
6, 7. Here it was shown that Christ was in the form of God, 
and thought it right, and not robbery to be equal with him ; 
yet he was a man, and possessed his form and nature also. 

Some have assumed that although Christ was called God, 
he was not the very God, but was only so called because of 
his superangelic greatness; whereas he was in all respects 
inferior to the Father, both in person and dignity, and that 
his claim to equality was permitted to be so, but not real, or 
founded in fact. Such notions could only be founded upon a 
determination to reject the doctrine of Christ's divinity, and 
not to regard the authority and testimony of Scripture, for 
the purpose of establishing a system of morals in opposition 
to justification by faith, the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and 
all spirituality in religion. Such objectors, as well as all 
others who admit the being of God and the obligations of 
creatures to the Creator, will agree that none but the very 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 421 

and eternal God is entitled to divine worship and homage; 
that God will not give his glory to another, to a creature, 
however great. But we see that Christ is worshiped as truly 
as the Father, in the administration of baptism, and as truly 
so in the Sacrament of the Supper. This is done in memory 
and honor of Christ, and all men and angels are commanded 
by the Father to worship the Son and honor him' even as they 
do the Father. And it is said, u He that honoreth not the 
Son,honoreth not the Father which hath sent him." " For as 
the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so 
the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth 
no man, but hath committed ail judgment unto the Son, that 
all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. 
He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which 
hath sent him." — John v. 21-23. From the above it must he 
seen that no one does or can worship the Father who does 
not worship the Son, and if he says he does, he contradicts 
the Word of God. All who honor the Father must and do 
honor the Son, not in part, hut even as they do the Father. 
If we worship the Son, and he is not God, but a mere man, 
or as others say, a superangelic creature, we are guilty of the 
sin of idolatry; and if we do not worship him when the 
Father has commanded it, we are liable to meet the curse of 
God for disobedience; and so we are certain of the curse of 
God both ways, according to all those who deny the real 
divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Heb. i. 6 : "And again, 
when he hringeth in the first begotten into the world, he 
saith, And let all the angels of God worship him." The proof 
is clear that all men and all angels are most solemnly hound 
to worship the Son, and honor him even as the Father, and 
this was recognized by the angels who proclaimed the Sav- 
iour's hirth, as well as by him who said to John in the Isle of 
Patmos, when he was about to worship him, " See thou do it 
not, . . worship God." 

The angels worship none but God, though they all worship 
Christ, knowing him to be God. He that made all things is 
almighty, eternal, and immutable. That this is true of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, I shall prove from the Word of God : 

1. That he is almighty and eternal, and made all things. 



422 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

"Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, 
and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the 
earth shall wail because of him. Even so : Amen. I am 
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the 
Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the 
Almighty." — Rev. i. 7, 8. That this is the Saviour may be 
further seen in the eighteenth verse: "I am he that liveth 
and was dead, and behold I am alive forever more, Amen, and 
have the keys of hell and of death." As it has been proven 
that the person speaking is Christ, it is also proven that he is 
almighty and eternal, and has the gift of life and the power 
of death in his own hands. Isa. ix. 6 : " For unto us a child 
is born, unto us a son is given; the government shall be upon 
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Coun- 
sellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince 
of Peace." Micah v. 2: "But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, 
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out 
of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in 
Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from ever- 
lasting." John i. 1-3 : "In the beginning was the Word, and 
the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same 
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by 
him, and without him was not anything made that was made." 
Col. I. 15-17: " Who is the image of the invisible God, the 
first born of every creature; for by him were all things 
created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and, 
and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or prin- 
cipalities, or powers; all things were created -by him and for 
him, and he is before all things, and by him all things con- 
sist. We see that inspiration has turned every way, and fully 
guarded the divinity of the Son of God on every side. All 
that can be found in the Bible to prove the being of God, his 
eternal power and Godhead, may truly be applied to Christ 
to prove his eternal power and Godhead, as the maker of all 
things, and the upholder of all things — "he is before all 
things, and by him were all things created, and by him they 
consist." He was in the beginning with God, his goings 
forth have been from everlasting, from eternity ! He is the 
Son given, the Ruler in Israel, the Everlasting Father, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 423 

or Father of Eternity, and all tilings were made by him 
and for him, and are at his disposal ; he can save to the utter- 
most. 

2. I shall prove that he is immutable. Immutability is one 
of Jehovah's incommunicable attributes, and is not possessed 
and cannot be truly ascribed to any being but God. But we 
see that Christ is unchangeable. "And thou, Lord, in the 
beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the 
heavens are the works of thy hands; they shall perish, but 
thou remainest; and they shall wax old as doth a garment 
and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and the}' shall be 
changed ; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." 
— Heb. I. 10-12. Again, Heb. xnr. 8: "Jesus Christ, the 
same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." ' That these pas- 
sages have reference to Christ, cannot be disputed; that they 
prove his immutability is equally certain. In Mai. in. 6, the 
Lord says : " For I am the Lord, I change not ; therefore ye 
sons of Jacob are not consumed." The Jews at a certain 
time questioned the divinity of Jesus Christ, his eternity and 
immutability, when he was speaking of Abraham having 
seen his day with joy and gladness. They said, Thou art not 
yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ? His answer 
is such as to prove both his eternity and immutability beyond 
the shadow of a doubt. "Jesus said unto them, Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am." — John 
vin. 58. When the eternal aud unchangeable One sent Moses 
into Egypt to lead his brethren from bondage into the land 
of promise, he was informed that I AM had sent him, a name 
chosen of God to satisfy Moses and all others that he was the 
supreme, eternal, and immutable God. Christ, in after time, 
to convince the unbelieving descendants of Abraham, and 
brethren of Moses, that he. was not only before Moses and 
Abraham, but from all eternity, and changes not, used the 
same language, and claimed the same title as did the sender 
of Moses. He does not say, before Abraham was, I was ; but 
" before Abraham was, I am." With him who is eternal and 
unchangeable, there can be no before or after in his being, 
but one eternity, as Christ said, "I am." I feel well assured 
that if the Scriptures cannot be broken, but are to be relied 



424 , MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

on, that they do fully prove the Unity of God, the doctrine 
of the Trinity, and the essential divinity of the Lord Jesus 
Christ beyond all doubt; and that no one will doubt or con- 
tradict it, only as he or they doubt and contradict the truth 
of revelation and the Christian religion. In connection with 
the immutability of the Son of God, it may be w T ell to con- 
sider at least one connection of Scripture, which some have 
supposed to be opposed to, and even to disprove, the personal 
distinction of Christ, and his immutability. It will be found 
in 1 Cor. xv. 24-28 inclusive : " Then cometh the end, when 
he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the 
Father ; when he shall have put down all rule, and all author- 
ity and power. For he must reign until he hath put all 
enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be des- 
troyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. 
But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest 
that he is excepted which did put all things under him. And 
when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son 
also himself be subject unto him that did put all things under 
him, that God may be all in all." There are those who deny 
the doctrine of the Trinity in a personal sense, but hold it in 
an official sense : that there are three offices, and but one per- 
son, and that he fills the office of Father, and then of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost, at different times. That the Father 
only is God, while the Son and Holy Ghost are only so by 
delegation, and that the Son who became God by delegation 
will finally deliver up the divinity so delegated to him to the 
Father, and become subject to God like other created beings. 
This, they suppose, to be the true sense of the above. If 
that notion were true, then there was a time when there was 
no Son, and Holy Ghost, and there will be that time again. 
Moreover, the distinction being official, and not personal, the 
command that all men should honor the Son even as they 
honor the Father, is more than a mystery. And to baptize 
in the name of the three, when there is but one person, but 
three offices, would either be to call one person by three 
distinct names in baptism, or to baptise in the name of 
one person and two offices. Again, if the person of the 
Father dwelt in the Son, and constituted him God by delega- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 425 

tion, to whom did the son pray but to himself, when the ful- 
ness of the Godhead bodily dwelt in him ? But we are told 
that all sin shall be forgiven, whether committed against the 
Father or the Son ; yes all, but the blasphemy against the 
Holy Ghost hath no forgiveness in this world, nor in the 
world to come. Here it would seem that the sin against the 
Holy Ghost is a sin against an office, rather than a distinct 
person whose office work is to reprove of sin, of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment. But it is a fact that these offices are 
all filled at the same time, by either one person or three, and 
as the Bible says three, it must be so. But to return to the 
text. It is not only said of the Sou of God that he must 
reign, and will reign, until his enemies and all opposing 
powers are subdued and put under him; even the last one, 
which is death, shall be put under his feet; but it is also true 
that there is something that he will deliver up, having fin- 
ished his work in that respect. Now we remember that he 
came into the world and commenced the work of man's 
redemption at a certain time, and at a certain time he finished 
it, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he 
will reign until his second coming. He commenced the work 
of man's redemption in time, and he finished it in time, and 
in like manner he commenced all his works as the world's 
Eedeemer in time, and the time will come when he will fin- 
ish that, and wind it all up, and surrender his mediatorial 
office, with the power, rule, and authority, no more to be ex- 
ercised by him in behalf of sinners forever. Then it will be 
said, It is done, and all in heaven will say, Amen. But having 
finished his mediatorial work, he will still be God, and will 
come with power and great glory to judge the world. He 
does not act as judge and mediator^ and fill both offices at 
one and the same time, but he now fills the office of mediator, 
and when he shall have finished that, he will fill the other ; 
for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, 
while he divides the righteous and the wicked as a shepherd 
divideth the sheep from the goats. But we see that God is 
judge of all ; therefore Jesus Christ must be God, for he is judge. 
" Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that 
put all things under him." Here is where he is supposed to 
28 



426 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

deliver up his delegated divinity. But it will be remembered 
that he must reign until he hath put all his enemies under his 
feet. Then we are reminded that he is expected who did put 
all things under him. If, then, the divinity of Christ consti- 
tuted the power which put his enemies under him, we see at 
once that .if it had only been delegated he will never give it 
up, for Paul makes an exception to the subduing power, that 
it remains forever in the hands of the conqueror, who is one 
with the Father and the Holy Ghost for ever. As to the Son 
becoming subject, it does not imply a change in his nature, 
or the removal of his power as God, but only submission to 
the divine will of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the 
consummation of a great plan — the son is subject to it, sub- 
missive to the divine will. As he once said, Not my will, but 
thine, be done. Once more: If, as has been supposed, the 
Son of God is to become less than he is now, by being empt- 
ied of his divinity, when he presents his bride before his 
Father after the judgment, it could not be right for all heav- 
en to say, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and 
glory, and blessing; and they all gave honor and glory unto 
him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever 
and ever." This worship and glory are to be endlessly paid 
to Christ by those who only worship God. Christ is omnis- 
cient and omnipresent. Being omniscient, he sees and knows 
all things. And heing omnipresent, he fills immensity. 
These are attributes of God, but are ascribed to Christ upon 
divine authority. 

As judge of all, Christ could not fill the office without the 
attribute of omniscience, or a perfect knowledge of all things, 
even the secret thoughts of all hearts, as well as words, acts, 
and deeds. It is said of him, "that it needed not that any 
man should tell him what was in man, for he knew what was 
in man." Peter, in making a most solemn appeal to the 
Lord, says, " Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that 
I love thee." — John xxi. 17. If Christ did not know all 
things, Peter believed that he did, and he left Peter in that 
belief. But Christ claimed to know as much as his Father, 
and all admit that the Father knows all things. John x. 13 : 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 427 

"As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father." 
The omnipresence of Christ is inseparable from his unbounded 
knowledge; for he could not know all things unless he 
is everywhere present at all times. Jesus said to his disciples, 
" Where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
there am I in the midst of them." — Matt, xviii. 20. And to 
his ministers he said, " Lo, I am with you always, even unto 
the end of the world." — Mat. xxviii. 20. 

Although these texts do not in so many words say that 
Christ is everywhere present at the same time, yet it will 
appear manifest to all that he could not be present at more 
places than one at the same time, if he is not omnipresent. 
His promise is, that in all time, and in all places where his 
people meet to worship and his ministers go to preach his gos- 
pel, he will be with them, though dispersed all over the world. 
This promise he knew he could perform when he made it, and 
surely no promise could be better calculated to encourage 
and comfort his Church, and none rests upon better author- 
ity — it bears all the sanction of the eternal Word of Truth 
itself. 

I shall now introduce some other plain texts in proof of the 
divinity of the Son of God, and close this part of the lecture, 
only as some thoughts on it may incidentally come up. 

All beings in the universe are either Creator, or creatures, 
God or his works; and he alone who is eternal has life in 
himself and independently of all other beings; and conse- 
quently has power to give life, even eternal life in a subordi- 
nate sense, to other beings. No fact more readily addresses 
itself to the rational mind and gains readier assent than this, 
that he who gives life, even eternal life, must be the eternal 
fountain of all life, the very God. We shall now see that 
this is true of Jesus Christ, that he has that life and being 
that enabled him to give life to other beings, and that all life 
and being are by him and from him. " All things were made 
by him, and without him was not anything made, that was 
made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 
That was the true light, which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world 
was made by him." — John i. 3, 4, 9, 10. "For as the Father 



428 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life 
in himself." — John v. 26. " For as the Father raiseth up the 
dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth 
whom he will." — John v. 21. If the Father has life, so has 
the Son, and if the Father can raise the dead into life, so can 
the Son do likewise. But in man there is natural life, and 
good men have spiritual life. Christ, as man, had life, and 
being God, he has life as such, and the right and power of 
giving and disposing of life. As man, he had a life which could 
be given for the race of man ; and as God he had the right to lay 
it down, and power to take it up again, which he did do. 
"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my 
life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, 
but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, 
and 1 have power to take it again." — John x. 17, 18. Then 
he says, " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and 
they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they 
shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my 
hand." — John x. 27, 28. And to Martha he says, U I am the 
resurrection and the life : he that believeth in me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me, shall never die." — John xi. 24, 25. " Who 
hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from 
that time? Have not I, the Lord? and there is no God else 
beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside 
me. Look upon me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the 
earth : for I am God and there is none else." — Isa. xlv. 21, 22. 
Surely this is the voice of the Saviour, the only name through 
whom we can be saved, the great Rock of our salvation. 
Now let us hear John : " And we know that the Son of 
God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we 
may know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, 
even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and 
eternal life."— 1 John v. 20. 

While there is a clear distinction kept up between the 
Father and the Son throughout the Bible, it is taught with 
equal chearness that they are one. Christ says, " I and my 
Father are one." — John x. 30. If the Bible can be relied 
upon to prove anything in all the wide range of truth and 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 429 

reason, surely it must be true beyond the shadow of a reason- 
able doubt, that there are three persons in the Godhead, 
called Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that these three are 
one. And as certain as there is a God in the universe, and 
as certain that the Word of God is true, the Son of God is 
divine — is the true God and eternal life. And to sum .up all 
the argument and proof adduced, we must either admit it, or 
deny both the truth of the Bible and the very existence of 
God altogether. 

Some, who in other respects are sound Trinitarians, have 
doubted the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ for 
reasons which I think not good, and which must, as they 
do, contradict the Bible. For while it is not denied that 
there are some expressions in the Bible which indicate that 
the Son, so called, and as God and man united, is inferior to 
the Father, yet it is a matter of clear revelation, and most 
positively declared, that the Son of God was given, the Son 
of God came, and that the Son of God — yes, the Sou of God 
who came — is the true God, and eternal life; and that all 
men are to honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. 
Moreover, the Son of God raiseth the dead, and quickeneth 
whom he will, and all judgment is in his hands. It is 
Bible language, and Bible doctrine, to say and believe that 
the Son of God is the true and eternal God, and as such there 
can be no impropriety in speaking of him as the eternal Son 
of God. He was the Son of God before he came into the 
world and united his divine with human nature. But, still 
after this he is called the Son of God. Here are two distinct 
natures in one person; the one supreme, and the other infe- 
rior. This affords a complete solution for every passage in the 
Bible, as well where the Son is spoken of as inferior to the 
Father, as where he is said to be equal and one with him. 
All inferiority in him is to be understood of his inferior na- 
ture, and his equality with the divine is to be understood of 
his divinity. I may conclude this part, and enter upon the 
third, as contemplated, after stating that if the personality 
and perfect divinity of the second person in the Godhead 
has been proven, it will not be difficult to prove that ot the 
third; forasmuch as it is apart of one great whole or unit 



430 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of truth in the great system of truths revealed in the Bible; 
and what is proven of the first and second is gained by the 
third. 

PART III. — THE DIVINITY AND WORKS OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

Here it may be stated that the same system of truth which 
teaches the personality and divinity of the Father and the 
Son, also teaches the truth of the personality and divinity of 
the Holy Spirit. And if the Bible should be thought to be 
less abundant in number and clearness of proof for the estab- 
lishment of the personality and divinity of the third person 
than that of the first and second, there will be no difficulty in 
understanding the reason of it. ~No one can believe in the 
existence and truth of the Bible and deny its author; and as 
the Bible has been given by inspiration of God, and holy 
men spake and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, 
it would not do to admit the truth and existence of the Book, 
and doubt or deny the existence of its author. Hence, the 
Bible, as a unity and system of truth, all goes to prove the 
personality, divinity, and wisdom of its Author. All those 
who deny the Author, to be consistent with themselves must 
deny the Bible; for they cannot admit its truth without the 
Author. Then, with all who admit the authenticity of the 
Bible, it affords just that much proof for the personality and 
divinity of the Holy Spirit. Again: No one who ever felt 
the divine power of the Holy Ghost in his heart freeing him 
from the dominion of sin, and bearing witness of the change, 
can deny him, nor do they want any better proof of his per- 
sonal power. If I am correct, good people do not deny the 
Holy Spirit and his power, for they have the witness in them- 
selves. None reproved by him of sin, of righteousness, and 
of judgment, can in truth deny his existence, and if they 
should dare to do it he will prove it against them before the 
judgment seat of Christ, when he will be a swift witness 
against them. In short, the Holy Ghost is his own witness, 
both in the volume of his inspiration and by his divine opera- 
tions in the souls of men, and those who deny him resist him 
as Christless sinners do. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 431 

Christ, in the days of his humiliation, spake of an unpar- 
donable sin, known among us as the sin against the Holy 
Ghost, and the evangelists have so recorded it : " All man- 
ner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but 
the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven 
unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word againts the Son 
of man, it shall be forgiven him, but whosoever speaketh 
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither 
in this world, neither in the world to come." — Matt. xn. 31, 
32. The Holy Ghost must be a divine person, or how could 
the unpardonable sin be committed against him as stated? 
And if there is no distinction between the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, how could it be said that sins committed against 
the Father and the Son are pardonable, while the blasphemy 
against the Holy Ghost is not? If they were in all things 
the same, the sin must be the same. But while they are the 
same undivided, infinite perfection, there is a most manifest 
personal distinction. The Father sent his Son to die for the 
world The Son came and did his work, and it is the work 
of the Holy Spirit to convince the world of sin and to 
sanctify and make people holy. This at once accounts for 
the magnitude of the sin against the Holy Ghost. He is the 
divine enlightener and reprover, and does not leave men 
alone to oral or written testimony with regard to his exist- 
ence and divine power, but he brings it to bear upon their 
heaits, so that when they speak against him or blaspheme 
against him, they do it with more light and a fuller conviction 
of the truth than they could have or ever do have from any 
other. A man may hear of the Son of God and yet speak 
against him as a deceiver, but when the Holy Ghost comes with 
power and makes his way to the hearts of men, as on the 
day of Pentecost, they will know that he is no creature, but 
that he is the Holy and Almighty One. The sin, therefore, 
against the Holy Ghost is ample proof of his personality and 
Godhead. Ananias and Sapphira sinned against the Holy 
Ghost. They were told that they had lied to the Holy 
Ghost, and that they had emphatically lied unto God. See 
Acts v. 3, 4 : "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to 
the Holy Ghost? . . . Thou hast not lied unto men, but 



432 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

unto God." We see that the Holy Ghost is God. The sin 
against the Holy Ghost being of the greatest magnitude, is 
at once seen to be a sin committed against the true God, not 
directly against his written Word and law, but directly 
against his energy upon the heart, giving clear light and 
tendering salvation, so that the offense is committed with 
light and knowledge directly from God, which leaves the 
offeuder without excuse to perish in his sins. This light, com- 
ing as it does from him whose office-work it is to enlighten, 
to sanctify, and save, on being rejected, is a rejection of the 
Father and Son also, " and there remaineth no more sacrifice 
for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery 
indignation which shall devour the adversaries," being com- 
mitted " wi;h a knowledge of the truth." 

Baptism, as has already been noticed, is by divine author- 
ity administered in the name of the Holy Ghost as well as 
in the name of the Father and Sou, not only as an act of 
equal worship and adoration to be continued to the end of 
time, but to perpetuate the doctrine of the Trinity through 
all time and to all nations. This of itself is the Almighty's 
infallible seal upon the doctrine, and no doubt one of the 
purposes of its institution; and those who neglect it in their 
families and churches are liable to retrograde in religion, 
and almost certain to deny the doctrine of the Trinity, the 
divinity of the Son of God, his vicarious sufferings and 
death, and the personality and influences of the Holy Ghost, 
and finally sink into lifeless formality, if nothing worse. 

It is one of the divine prerogatives which alone belongs to 
God to call and send men into the great harvest-field to 
preach the gospel and to administer the ordinances of the 
Lord's house. God only has the right to call men to this 
very important and highly responsible work. It was so under 
the old dispensation — it is so under the new. " For no man 
taketh his honor unto himself, but he that is called of God 
as was Aaron." Aaron, we see, was called of God, and no 
man may take upon himself the honor and responsibility 
now of ministering in the Church of God unless God eall 
him as he did Aaron. This being understood, it will be easy 
to show that if God alone has the right to call and send men 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 433 

to this great work, that the Holy Ghost is God, for he exer- 
cises that prerogative. Acts xni. 2 : " The Holy Ghost said, 
Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work where unto I 
have called them." And in the fourth verse it is said, " So 
they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed," etc. 
Thus we see they were called and sent to this great work by 
the Holy Ghost. When the elders of the church of Ephesus 
came to Paul at Miletus he said unto them, " Take heed, 
therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over w r hich 
the Holy Ghost hath" made you overseers, to feed the Church 
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." — 
Acts xx. 28. These elders were overseers and feeders of the 
flock, the Church of the living God; ministers so appointed 
and sent by the Holy Ghost. Christ promised to send the 
Holy Spirit — that his Father would send him in his name. 
Here, it may be remarked, that the word sent when referred 
to the Holy Ghost, who is omnipresent, is to be understood 
in the same sense as when spoken in reference to the Son of 
God, who, although he is omnipresent, is said to have been 
sent and to have come into the world. By the sending or 
pouring out of the Holy Spirit, we are to understand his 
special and powerful influences and works in the world. 
John said Christ would baptize with the Holy Ghost. This 
divine operation is spoken of as an outpouring, a shedding 
forth, a falling upon, a coming down. This same pouring 
out was to be upon all flesh — all men everywhere. The 
word baptize has special reference, however, as we shall see, 
to the renewing power of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of 
such as believe in Christ, in sanctifying and uniting them to 
their living Head. Comforter, Holy Spirit, and Holy Ghost 
are not distinct and different beings, but different names by 
which the third person in the Godhead is designated in the 
Bible. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 
whom the Father will send in my name." — John xrv. 26. 
" But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto 
you, from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which pro- 
ceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." — John 
xv. 26. I have given this proof to show that the Comforter, 
the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Ghost are the same, because it 



434 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

is sometimes denied and contended that the Holy Ghost does 
not now operate, but the Holy Spirit does, but is located in 
and confined to the written Word, if not one and the same 
with it. The tendency of this sentiment is to uproot and 
overthrow all spirituality in religion. The reader may easily 
understand this process. When the Spirit and Comforter 
are said to be the same, and are either identical with the 
written Word or located in it — yes, that it is the Spirit — 
then we are informed that this Spirit reproves of sin, of 
righteousness, and of judgment where it is preached and 
circulates; and when it is believed and obeyed it regenerates 
in the act of obedience, and then comforts with words, but 
not by a divine energy in the heart. The teaching of the 
Bible, however, is that the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, and 
the Holy Spirit are the same same divine person, and if one, 
is the Bible or written Word ; they are all the Holy Ghost 
as truly as the Spirit and Comforter. But if the Holy Ghost 
is not the written Word, but the writer of it, then it must be 
evident that the Holy Spirit and the Comforter are not the 
written Word, but its author, and the difference between the 
Holy Spirit and the written Word is just as wide as the 
finite and the infinite. The one is local and the other every- 
where present at the same time; the one is a dead letter and 
eternally will be so, without the quickening power and 
energy of its author, who is a quickening Spirit, and can and 
does work with and without the written Word, and in all 
cases must powerfully regenerate the sinner, or he will die in 
his sins as truly as if there were no Bible in the world. 

I shall now proceed to show that the Holy Ghost is not only 
in the world, and everywhere present, but that he works — 
yes, does all the work of enlightening the world and of regen- 
eration. Our Saviour promised to send the Comforter, even 
the Spirit of truth, which was to be in his disciples and 
abide with them forever. This promise is of the same charac- 
ter and nature with the one he made when he said, Go preach 
the gospel to every creature ; lo, I am with you always, even 
to the end of the world. These promises, made to his disci- 
ples and ministers, could only be fulfilled on the ground that 
he is omnipresent, and so is the Spirit; and if Christ will 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 435 

dwell m the Church to the end of time, so will the Holy 
Ghost abide always. The Holy Spirit commenced the great 
spiritual edifice, and by the same divine process he will finish 
it. He is the builder of the spiritual temple. His work of 
enlightening is called by different names, such as reprove or 
convince; and his work of purifying men's hearts is called 
by different names also, such as regeneration, born again, 
passing from death unto life, created anew in Christ Jesus, 
raised into newness of life, born of the Spirit, baptized by 
the Spirit. 

Now, all that is necessary in the argument to prove that 
all these mean one and the same thing, is to show that it is 
all done by the same divine person and that the result is 
invariably the same. That a new heart or a new creature is 
the result of regeneration will not be disputed, nor will there 
be any dispute as to ''"he result of the new birth. It is the 
same, and in both cases the subjects are united to Christ and 
full of joy in the Holy Ghost. The Spirit bears witness to the 
work done by him. These regenerated ones are part of one 
great family of the spiritual building, and as they were 
prepared, so must all the building be; and although it may 
be called a resurrection or baptism, if the result is the same, 
with all the marks of identity, and we find them connected 
with the same building, upon the same great Rock of salva- 
tion, we know it to be the same work and all of the Holy 
Ghost. This building is called a body, but body and build- 
ing or habitation are the same in this place, for they are 
composed of many parts or members. 1 Cor. xn. 12: "For 
as the body is one, and hath man} 7 members, and all the 
members of that one body, being many, are one body, so 
also is Christ." Then he says (verse 27), "Now ye are the 
body of Christ, and members in particular." We see that 
this body is Christ's spiritual Church. They are many mem- 
bers yet but one body, and Christ the head, and whatever 
may have been the process in preparing one, has been in 
every case and will continue so to be. Paul speaks of this 
same body in the following language : " And are built upon 
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ 
himself being the chief corner-stone ; in whom all the build- 



436 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

ing fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in 
the Lord; in whom ye are also builded together, for an 
habitation of God through the Spirit."— Eph. n. 21-23. 

Here, as before, we see that the building is composed of 
many, yet but one habitation, built by the Spirit upon one 
foundation. !N"ow, we shall see that this work is all done by 
the Holy Spirit, and is called baptism. Yes, the work of 
building the body or house is called baptism, the baptism 
of the Holy Spirit. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized 
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we 
be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one 
Spirit." — 1 Cor. xn. 13. Then Paul says, " But now hath 
God set the members every one of them in the body, as it 
hath pleased him." — Verse 18. God did all this work ; God 
the Holy Ghost set all the members in the body by holy, 
purifying baptism, and none ever were or ever will be in the 
body but by this process. Setting, planting, grafting, build- 
ing, and baptizing into this body is the same work, and is 
most undoubtedly the work of the Holy Spirit. If so, Paul 
was right when he said that the whole spiritual family, or 
body of Jesus Christ, in all ages, was sanctified and united 
to Christ the living head, and to one another by the baptism 
of the Spirit. Yes, all, both Jews and Gentiles, bond and 
free, were baptized into the body by one Spirit, and that 
Spirit is the Holy Ghost, as I have proven, and not the 
written Word. Now, this same building, framed together 
upon Christ, the chief corner-stone, by the Holy Spirit, will 
continue to rise and extend by the same divine agent until, 
with shoutings, the cap-stone shall be placed upon it, saying, 
Grace, grace unto it. Who, then, will venture, with the 
W r ord of God before him, to say that the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost ceased w r ith miracles and extended not beyond 
the time of the apostles? And, moreover, who will hazard 
the assertion that the baptism of the Spirit as spoken of by 
Paul, which sets all the members in the body, is not identical 
with regeneration? Then, if regeneration is the work of 
the Holy Spirit, and sets these members in the body as it 
pleases him, and the same work of the Spirit is called bap- 
tism, it is as plain as that two and two make four, that 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 437 

regeneration by the Spirit and baptism by the Spirit are the 
same work; and if regeneration will continue in the world 
to the end of time, surely the baptism of the Holy Ghost at 
this day cannot -be denied without denying the work of 
regeneration by the Spirit. That this is the doctrine which 
the Holy Ghost taught all inspired men, is placed beyond 
the shadow of a doubt to every mind not totally blinded by 
sectarian prejudice, and may be further seen by looking into 
the volume of Inspiration. Paul says (Titus in. 5-7), -'Not 
by works of righteousness which we have done, but accord- 
ing to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, 
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us 
abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being 
justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to 
the hope of eternal life." This is regeneration, in so many 
words, by the washing, purifying power of the Holy Ghost 
shed forth abundantly into the heart, and eternal life is the 
result, all by grace. This is all ascribed to the Holy Ghost 
alone. " Not by might or power, but by my Spirit, saith the 
Lord." 

That Jesus Christ was competent to teach the true doctrine 
of regeneration, and the power by which it is consummated, 
cannot be disputed b} T any wise and good man. Let us hear 
what he said to Nicodemus in reference to this same great 
work. He speaks to him of the salvation of the soul, and 
affirms that no one can enter into the kingdom of God 
except he be born again — " born of water and of the Spirit." 
(See John in.) But when this old Jew marveled and 
inquired how this could be, Christ in his teaching evidently 
shows that the entire process was by an invisible power 
which cannot be seen by the eye. The wind, we know, is a 
powerful element, and its power can be felt and its effects 
seen, but the wind itself cannot be seen ; " we cannot tell 
whence it cometh and whither it goeth." " So is every one 
that is born of the Spirit." Yes, every one that is born of 
the Spirit. He feels the Spirit's renewing power and is made 
a new creature in Christ Jesus, but sees nothing more of the 
power that does all the work than a man's eyes can see of 
the wind. 



438 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Now, if this is true of regeneration, all human agencies 
and ceremonies, such as water baptism, etc., are absolutely 
excluded from any participation in the work of the new 
birth, in a saving and essential way, and the Holy Spirit, 
which cannot be seen, begins and completes the change and 
saves the soul. Whatever instrumentalities may be em- 
ployed, none of them enter into the nature of or constitute 
any part of the saving power and grace of God, and to say 
that they do is not to explain his Word, but a contradiction 
of it. "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must 
worship him in spirit and in truth." As God is a Spirit, so 
the work of regeneration must be by the power of that Spirit, 
that the worship of God may be spiritual. It is both script- 
urally and philosophically true that no power but that of a 
Spirit could so operate in the spirit of man as to free it from 
moral pollution and make it holy — "holiness, without which 
no man shall see the Lord." In view, then, of Christ's mys- 
tical body being spiritual, it might well be said that he 
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost — that he shall "baptize you 
with the Holy Ghost and with fire." If the Bible is true, 
the doctrine of the Trinity is true, and the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost are three in one sense and but one in another — 
one undivided essence, equal in power and glory. And if 
the doctrine of the Trinity is true, the gospel plan of salva- 
tion is a blessed truth. And if the gospel plan of salvation is 
true, then the doctrine of sactitication by the renewing power 
of the Holy Spirit in the soul is a most precious truth con- 
nected with eternal life and glory. But to deny one is to deny 
all. And to deny the works of the Holy Ghost in the human 
soul and his regenerating power, is a flat contradiction of 
the Word of God, of all spirituality in religion, of comfort 
here and hereafter, and finally saps the whole foundation of 
the Christian religion, and leaves poor man to hang his hope 
upon nothing better than outer darkness and eternal despair. 
"But this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the 
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 
This gives joy and peace in the Holy Ghost, and is full of 
immortality. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 439 



LECTURE XXIV— THE SOXSHIP OF CHRIST, 



1. The main object of this investigation is not so much to 
establish the real divinity of Christ, as it is to remove from 
the doctrine of the Sonship of Christ that which obscures it. 
There is nothing of all that we mortals have to do with 
which is more readily believed than the being of God, the 
almighty maker of all things; yet the mind is staggered at 
the doctrine of the Trinity, and often hesitates and draws 
back on the account of the overwhelming mystery of the 
subject, though it is fully taught in the Scriptures of truth. 
In close proximity with this great mystery, is the doctrine 
of the Sonship and true divinity of the Saviour. Xot every 
one who believes in the existence of God admits the doctrine 
of the Trinity of persons in this one God. Some are dis- 
posed to deny it, mainly on the ground of its mysterious 
nature. The Scriptures, however, teach us most unequiv- 
ocally that there is no consistency in a belief in the being of 
God while the real divinity of the Son is discarded. " Who- 
ever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he 
that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also." — 1 John 
II. 23. And in John xiv. 1, Christ said, " Ye believe in God, 
believe also in me;" from which we are to understand that 
there were those in that day who, while they fully admitted 
the existence of God, did in no true sense believe in the Son. 
This, to say the least of it, was a very unpleasant condition, 
for, according to the first passage quoted, they had no God. 
Is it, then, so that there is no God separate and apart from 
the Saviour? and that he is God, and beside him there is 
none else — no God? " He and the Father are one, as he is 
in the Father, and the Father in him." God is one, in one 
true sense, and three in another sense, but how this is I 



440 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

cannot tell, but as he says it is so, we must not contradict 
him. 

2. All attempts to explain God, either as one or as three, 
other than he has revealed himself, must be the height of 
folly and prove a total failure in the end. To the mind of 
Paul, when under the light of inspiration, he exclaimed, 
" Great is the mystery of godliness — God was manifest in 
the flesh," etc. This great mystery was the true God and 
eternal life, our only Saviour. "He was God clothed in 
flesh, and he dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the 
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace 
and truth/' 

3. Having come to the conclusion and settled it in our 
minds as a fact that there is but one God, and that the Son 
is the very and eternal God, how are we to explain in any 
satisfactory way any such passages of Scripture as speak of 
him in the following way: " Thou art my Son: this day 
have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a Father 
and he shall be to me a Son." — Heb. i. 5. (See also Psa. n. 7.) 
Christ could not be the son of the Father in any common 
sense, nor could that relationship exist in this case, which 
agrees with our notions of father and son of our race. It 
must be understood in a different and more exalted sense. 
The relationship was altogether different and higher than 
that which the most exalted angels sustain to God ; for, says 
Paul, "Unto which of the angels said he at any time, 
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?" And 
again he saith, "Thy throne, God, is forever and ever : a 
scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom." 
" And, thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation 
of the earth ; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." 
u And again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the 
world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him." 
— Heb. i. 5, 8, 10, 6. With the above testimony before us, 
we see most clearly that the Son of God was not a creature 
of God, but he was the maker of all things and of all created 
beings, angels as well as men. His throne is eternal and his 
scepter that of God, and all the angels are commanded to 
worship him ; not as the first and most exalted of God's 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 441 

creatures, but as the creator of them. When all this is said 
of the Son, the first-begotten of the Father, what is the true 
interpretation of the title Son, the first-begotten of the 
Father? It could not be true, according to the scripture 
which we have just quoted, that there is any reference to his 
humanity as begotten by the Holy Ghost, for this was 
clearly creation by almighty power, and that which was 
produced by that act was a man and not God. " But of the 
Son it is said, Thy throne, God, is forever and ever." 
Hence, the man was made, but the Son was the maker of all 
that ever was made. Nor would the difficulty be lessened 
on the supposition that he became the Son of God by 
becoming incarnate, for it is manifest that if he was God 
and equal with the Father after, he certainly was the very 
same before, and was entitled to the same honor and worship 
before as after his incarnation. And the only reason why 
the Father would command the angels to worship the Son 
after the incarnation would seem to be on the ground of the 
wonderful condescension that God, whom they had never 
known to be clothed in flesh, should now become incarnate 
and dwell among men. This was a wonder to them while 
they desired to look into the mystery of godliness. Hence, 
it would seem to be necessary to inform them that he was 
the same God whom they had worshiped before, and were still 
to worship though he had become incarnate — " Jesus Christ 
the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." If the angels 
had previously worshiped him it would not appear to us 
expedient to give this command, unless they were liable to 
feel released from the obligation after the union of the divine 
with the human nature. But such is the fact that all the 
angels were commanded to worship the Son when he was 
brought into the world to save sinners, and we and angels 
are to worship one and the same God, and him only. 

4. No effort is made, nor will there be, to show in what 
respect the Son is distinct from the Father, yet there is a 
distinction spoken of in the Bible, but surely it cannot con- 
sist in anything that relates to the essential perfections of the 
Deity; "for Christ was one with the Father, and in him 
dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." The distinc- 
29 



442 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

tipn is covered up and lies far beyond our comprehension 
and may never be known to us — only we know it to be a 
revealed fact. " Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten 
thee." This may refer to him as the redeemer of the world 
and heir of all things, for it is said in immediate connection, 
" Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy 
possession." As a son is heir to his father's estate, the 
reference may have been to this fact, forasmuch as the 
leather promises to him as his onty begotten Son this large 
inheritance, he was begotten to it, for we cannot conceive 
that the word begotten has any allusion to the origin of the 
Son or eternal generation. The Son of God, as the. eternal 
I Am, could be begotten in no sense which implies a change 
in his essential divinity or Godhead, for as God, he never 
had a beginning, nor is he now anything more or less 
than he was in eternit}^. "In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."— 
John i. 1. 

In the second Psalm, where Christ is spoken of as the 
begotten Son of the Father, we find these words : " Yet 
have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare 
the decree : the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son ; 
this day have I begotten thee." — Psa. n. 6, 7. Then follows 
the promise of the world for his inheritance, as before 
quoted, " Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for 
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
thy possession." ~No violence will be offered to the Script- 
ures and the rules of their strict interpretation, when we 
refer the words beget or begotten Son of the Father entirely 
to Christ as the Redeemer of the world, the King of Zion, 
and the heir of all things, and say that he was begotten to 
this or appointed to it ; for there was a decree in the case, 
and the begotten Son of God was set upon the throne in 
Zion, and was her King, Lord, and Ruler, as well as heir of 
all things. This could all be done by the Father, and in this 
sense the Son could be begotten, and at the same time there 
would be no contradiction of his perfect and immutable 
divinity. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 443 

5. By a further investigation of this doctrine it will 
become more evident that this is true, and that the word 
beget, in reference to the Son of God, relates to his appoint- 
ment as king of Zion and redeemer of the world. 

It will be sufficient to show that the writer of the Acts 
and Paul so understood it. " And we declare unto you glad 
tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the 
fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in 
that he hath raised up Jesus again ; as it is also written in the 
second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten 
thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the 
dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this 
wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David." — Acts xin. 
32-34. The apostle here speaks directly of the resurrection 
of the Son of God from the dead, and says this was a fulfil- 
ment of the words of God in the second Psalm : " Thou art 
my Son, this day have I begotten thee." — Verse 7. If, there- 
fore, Paul was a true interpreter of God's word, and had a 
correct knowledge of what he intended to teach by the 
words, "this day have I begotten thee," then is this question 
well nigh settled. Christ, in this sense, was the first begotten 
of God. " But now is Christ risen from the dead, and 
become the first fruits of them that slept." — 1 Cor. xv. 20 
In reference to the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, 
it is said in so many words that it was a birth and a begetting 
of him from the dead. " And he is the head of the body, 
the Church : who is the beginning, the first-born from the 
dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence." — 
Col. I. 18. And again, " And Jesus Christ, who is the faith- 
ful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince 
of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and 
washed us from our sins in his own blood." — Rev. i. 5. He 
was begotten and born from the dead, aud this was done in 
time and not from all eternity, as some have supposed. He 
was begotten of the Father, was the head of the Church, 
the King of Zion, the Prince of the kings of the earth, and 
has the preeminence in all respects ; for he loved us and 
washed us from our sins in his own blood, and is heir of all 
things. To this he was begotten and to this he was born 



444 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

from the dead. That he was begotten in any other sense 
does not appear from the Scriptures. This word begotten 
does not necessarily involve the Sonship of Christ as a divine 
person, for if he was the Son of God, as a divine person, 
equal with the Father, he never could have been begotten in 
any sense relating to his existence any more than the Father 
was. Hence, the Nicene fathers and others were in a cloud and 
obscured the doctrine of the Trinity and the proper divinity 
of Jesus Christ and his Sonship when they used the follow- 
ing language: "Begotten of the Father before all worlds; 
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begot- 
ten, not made;" — " language," says Dr. Barnes, "implying 
derivation in his divine nature. A derived being cannot in 
any proper sense be God ; and if there is any attribute which 
the Scriptures have ascribed to the Saviour with peculiar 
clearness, it is that of proper eternity." The mind of man 
is incapable of such a conception as that the eternal and 
immutable God could in any sense, real and proper, be 
derived either from himself or another. Such language and 
such a thought is certainly misleading and very hazardous 
to truth. But when it is fully demonstrated by revealed 
truth itself that in more than one place where the words 
occur — begotten Son, begotten from the dead, born from the 
dead — they have direct reference to the appointment of 
Christ as the Saviour of the world by his death and resur- 
rection. Hence, there being nothing in the Word of God 
contradictory of this, and nothing in this which can in any 
way obscure or militate against the true and proper divinity 
of the Son of God, we may take it as an established fact 
that the word begotten Son had reference to the whole work 
ot redemption by the Son, and especially to his resurrection, 
which was the crowning act. This view taken, we can see 
this much: that he could be very and eternal God in perfect 
harmony with such a decree and appointment of the Father. 
See again second Psalm: " Yet have I set my kingdom upon 
my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord 
hath said unto me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I 
begotten thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen 
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 445 

for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of 
iron ; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. 
Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges 
of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with 
trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish 
from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. 
Blessed are they that put their trust in him." Here we see 
that an appointment w^as made. A king was set upon the 
throne and he was the Son of God. To him were made large 
promises of conquest and dominion, and that he, in consum- 
mating his work, should conquer death and triumph over 
the grave. Turning now, once more, to Acts xiii., we see 
he light unobscured by the mist of the eternal generation 
of the Son of (rod. " And we declare unto you glad tidings, 
how that tbe promise which was made unto the fathers, God 
hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he 
hath raised up Jesus again ; as it is also written in the second 
Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. 
And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, 
now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I 
will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he 
saith also in another Psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine 
Holy One to see corruption." By these ample quotations, 
we can better see how fully the position taken in relation to 
the Son of God is established. I desire to avoid all liability 
to mistake here, and for that reason special attention is 
invited to what follows. Observe, therefore, that it is not 
contended here that Christ was the Son of God by appoint- 
ment or by the resurrection. All this had nothing to do 
with his Sonship. Nor is it contended that there is no 
reference to anything save the resurrection of Christ in the 
words, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee," 
or rather the word begotten. The position is, that the entire 
plan of salvation is referred to and taken into the scope — the 
resurrection and all that Christ was appointed to do and did 
do for the race as their Saviour. To this he was begotten 
and brought into the world clothed in flesh. We shall now 
see whether or no the above will harmonize with what is said 
of the Son of God in Heb. i. : " God, who at sundry times 



446 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by 
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his 
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom 
also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his 
glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding 
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself 
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty 
on high. . . . For unto which of the angels said he at 
any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? 
And again, I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me 
a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten 
into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God wor- 
ship him. . . . But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, 
God, is forever and ever." The angels were sons of God, begot- 
ten sons, and the saints are sons of God also, but not begotten 
in the same sense nor to the same great work of purging our 
sins, and then to sit on the right hand of the Father to 
bring the kingdoms of the world into submission. Angels 
are created sons, but he who was begotten in this high sense 
was the maker of angels. He was the true God and eternal 
life, and they were all commanded to worship him. Christ, 
therefore, was the only begotten. He was begotten before 
he was brought into the world; when the plan was laid for 
onr redemption — this clay have I begotten thee, but not 
from eternity. The Son as God was eternal with the Father, 
but the plan of recovery is a plan and scheme of time, for 
nothing can be eternal which required thought, planning, 
device, action, appointment, decree, or begetting. These all 
belong to him. But the Son as God was eternal, as we have 
seen, but was begotten or appointed in time Redeemer of 
the world and heir of all things. He was the Father's elect, 
elected to this station and dominion. 

6. All mysteries, however profound, when revealed to us 
as facts, should be believed, and more especially when they 
are consistent with themselves; but nothing can be believed 
by a rational mind which is inconsistent and self-contradic- 
tory. For instance, should it be stated that God, the maker 
of all things, made himself or was derived from another 
supreme being, no one could believe it. And it is worthy of 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 447 

remark that God has taught us nothing of the kind in his 
Word ; such as that his Son is very and eternal God, and yet 
was begotten as such, though it was before all worlds, or was 
derived in any sense so as to be in any respect what he was 
not from all eternity. Hence, such opinions and statements 
in relation to the Son of God, who is equal with the Father, 
as convey the idea of generation, whether in time or 
eternity, are absurd and self-contradictory, and always beget 
other errors, such as Arianism, Socinianism, and the like. 
Arianism is manifestly an offshoot from the sentiment that 
the Son of God was begotten by the Father before all 
worlds, for he (Arius) held that Christ was the first and 
noblest of all God's creatures, super-angelic, and that being 
by whose subordinate agency God created all things, but 
inferior to the Father both in person and dignity. And 
even to this day some are inclined to look upon the Saviour 
as an inferior being to the Father, which is doubtless the 
result of a wrong application of Scripture ; such as begotten 
of the Father, sent, etc., which should never be understood 
as having any reference to the origin of his divine nature, 
but invariably to something relating to his mediatorial work 
as the second person of the Trinity. 

7. It may be laid down as a safe rule of interpretation 
that no doubtful passage of Scripture is to be so interpreted 
as to conflict with any great doctrine or well-established fact, 
such as the being and unity of God and the unoriginated 
and underived, eternal divinity of the Son of God. These 
are fundamental truths, and in so far as they are weakened 
and impaired the entire temple of truth is damaged, and the 
flood-gate opened for infidelity to sweep away the entire 
superstructure. God is manifestly consistent in all his plans 
and in all he has revealed in his Word concerning himself 
and all things. There are no contradictions in his Word; 
there is no yea and nay, but in him is yea and amen. He is 
the God of truth and order. Then, we are to believe that 
there is one God, and only one — three persons in him of one 
and the same substance, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
and these three are one eternal and unchangeable God. As 
this is established in our faith, there will be no ground to 



z - ■■ 



448 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

doubt the essential divinity of either person of the Godhead — 
there can be none without a conflict with the first acknowl- 
edged truths. Whoever disbelieved the proper divinity of 
of the Son that first held the fact that he and the Father are 
one and that the Father is very God? For if all the fullness 
of the Godhead dwelt bodily in the Son, he was God. This 
is self-evident. Therefore, we transcend the proper rules of 
interpretation whenever we so construe anything said of 
Christ in the Bible as to present him inferior to the Father. 
In every instance where inferiority is intimated of the Son, 
it must relate to something connected with him as the 
Redeemer and not to him as the very God, for we all see 
that what God is at one time he is at all times ; and if the 
Son is God and not a derived being, he is the same yesterday, 
to-day, and forever, and could not as such have been begot- 
ten. The word could have no intelligible signification or 
consistency, but would be degrading to the Godhead. The 
relationship between the Father and the Son is an essential, 
eternal, and immutable one, such as could never have been 
produced by any action of the divine mind, but was from 
eternity what it is now, and will forever continue the same. 
We know with as much certainty as we can know any fact, 
that every being in the universe is either creator or creature, 
and that God has never allowed of creature worship, but has 
positively forbidden it; but we see that in relation to the 
Son he has not only commanded all men but all his angels to 
worship him. 

8. Errorists have contended against the equality of the 
Son with the Father on the ground of common relationship 
as it exists among men. The argument has run thus: That 
no son can in all respects be equal with his father; there is a 
difference in age, etc. Though such comparisons are puerile 
and degrading to the Godhead, it must not be denied that 
they have had their influence on the minds of men and done 
much to mislead souls. The language used by the Nicene 
fathers clearly paved the way for such reasoning and errors 
when they say of the Son, " He was begotton before all 
worlds." They fix the time far back before "all worlds, but 
not in eternity with the Father. There would seem to be a 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 449 

long intervening time between the Father and the begetting 
of his Son, and it can be no matter of doubt as to whether 
they alluded to his divine or human nature, for they place 
this begetting of the Son far beyond the existence of his 
human nature — before all worlds. And while they say he 
was begotten, not made, it is certain, according to the very 
framing of their language, that he was not before what he 
was after he was begotten. The best that can be said of the 
sentiment is that he was derived from the Father and inferior 
to him — he was not eternal. As I have before said, there 
seems to be no escape from Arianism with all its pernicious 
consequences, on the supposition that the Son of God was 
begotten, as it relates to his highest nature. And to suppose 
that he was a derived being makes the matter no better than 
if it were said at once that he was the first and greatest of 
all God's creatures, but was no God at all. There can be no 
medium beings who are neither God nor creatures. Christ 
was either the underived, uncreated God or a creature 
brought into being by the Creative hand, and if so, he is no 
Saviour, and we are yet in our sins, and it would be gross 
idolatry to worship him, and a marvelous inconsistency in 
him who has forbidden idol worship to command either men 
or angels to worship the Son. Christ himself said, " It is 
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only 
shalt thou serve," yet he never interdicted the worship of 
himself. And when he quoted the Scripture and said to 
Satan, " It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God 
and him only shalt thou serve," it is more than likely that 
he alluded to that specific command which says of the Son, 
" And let all the angels of God worship him," and this is 
the more reasonable as Satan was an angel, though fallen, 
and still obligated. Whether the son of a mortal man can 
or cannot in all respects be equal to his father who begat 
him, is of no avail and can have no bearing on the question 
under consideration. It is infinitely below it and never can 
rise high enough to shed one single ray of light on the 
subject. The word beget, when the analogy is run out, as it 
exists among mortal men and their sons, and is brought to 
bear in the same manner upon the Father Almighty and his 



450 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Son is presumptuous, for such thoughts in relation to God, 
however refined, are earthly and sordid, and can only lead to 
the most dangerous errors. There is no possible way to 
escape the conclusion that the Son of God was inferior to 
the Father while ever the word begotten is even allowed to 
have a squinting toward the generation of him. Put it 
down and it will rise up again in some other form equally as 
hazardous to truth and the glory of God. 

9. Here, I repeat, that no passage of the Bible is to be so 
interpreted of the Son, as a divine person, which conveys 
the idea of inferiority, for he is declared to be fully equal to 
the Father, and God nowhere contradicts himself. The 
Father speaks to the Son as a person before him, in his 
presence, having existence at the time, when he says, " Thou 
art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ; " and again, 
when he says, "Thy throne, God, is forever and ever." 
The Son is the person addressed by the title God, and his 
throne is declared to be eternal. Could he be eternal and 
be begotten in any sense that would imply change or begin- 
ning? One of two things must be true, either he was not 
eternal or he never was begotten in any sense which related 
to his essential Godhead. Eternity and immutability, as I 
have said, are essential attributes of the true God, and the 
Son must possess them or he is not and could not be God. 



SECTION VIII 



LECTURE XXV.— CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. 



PART I. 



This subject has been long and warmly contested in the 
Christian world, and unkind and unchristian feelings have 
too frequently attended the same, thereby retarding the 
spread of the gospel and the advancement of the kingdom 
of Christ. 

But such feelings are not necessarily consequent on its dis- 
cussion ; amid the mists and gloom of error which has been 
thrown around it, the light of revelation is sufficiently clear 
to direct the enquirer in the pathway -of truth, if he enters 
upon the investigation of the matter in the proper spirit. 

In giving our thoughts on Christian baptism we shall 
discuss — 

1. The nature and design of baptism. 

2. What constitutes Christian baptism. 

3. The mode. 

4. The subjects. 

1. The nature and design of baptism. — Water is the 
element to be used in this ordinance or sacrament. The 
quantity, however, has not been defined by the Great Head 
of the Church; nor will any sober, God-fearing lover of 
truth, attempt (with truth on his side) to show to the con- 
trary. In the sacrament of the supper, bread and wine are 
to be used in the ordinance; but the quantity which- each 
communicant is to receive has not been specified by the 
authority of God. 

(451) 



452 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

We conclude, therefore, that as the Lord has in neither 
case defined the quantity, we have no right to do it. Water 
baptism is an outward washing with water, not intended to 
cleanse the soul from moral pollution, or to purge the con- 
science from dead works. This is done by the blood of 
Christ alone, 1 John i. 7: " The blood of Jesus Christ his son 
cleanseth us from all sin." The doctrine taught in the Bible, 
concerning the two sacraments is, that all qualified persons 
have a right to them, and should receive them as from God, 
giving glory to him who hath appointed them. But not to 
ascribe their salvation or any part of it either to water bap- 
tism or the supper, which, to make the most of them, can 
only be means of grace and not grace itself, nor is the saving 
grace of God inseparably connected with these or any other 
outward forms; and to teach otherwise, is anti-scriptural, 
and approaches very near the sin of idolatry. The worship 
of the consecrated host is God-dishonoring, and to make 
water baptism essential to salvation is equally so. If the 
thing itself is not essential, no mode or form of the thing 
can possibly be so. But alas, how many have departed 
from the plain Word of God, and followed the councils 
of men. Thousands have led their little groups to nat- 
ural streams and fountains, who, we fear, have never 
tasted of the stream and fountain of life. Here water 
baptism stands for mure than the Son of God intended, 
and consequently stands right between sinners and the Lord 
Jesus Christ. And notwithstanding their consciences may 
have been awakened by the Holy Spirit, so soon as they are 
brought to believe that water baptism is essential to salva- 
tion, and the one thing needful, it is immediately 
attended to, and all concern about the receiving of the Holy 
Ghost is laid aside from that very awful moment — awful, 
because then and there the soul that sought the Saviour is 
taught to leave him, and is led to the water instead of the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 
This being all they know of experimental religion, at once 
discovers how all such can and do deny experimental religion, 
and the powers of the world to come in the soul. We 
would here call the attention of the reader to the following 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 453 

portions of Scripture: "Not by works of righteousness 
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us 
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy 
Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus 
Christ our Saviour." — Titus in. 5, 6. "Except a man be 
born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the 
kingdom of God." — John in. 5. These and many other 
passages of the like meaning have been used by the advocates 
of baptismal regeneration for the purpose of proving that 
water, material water, used in baptism cleanses from moral 
pollution and qualifies for heaven, and that there is no possi- 
bility of entering the kingdom below or above (when the 
subject has been enlightened) aside from water regeneration, 
and that must be by dipping. Here we remark that salva- 
tion is by grace alone, which is spoken of in metaphorical 
language. It is called pure water of life, clear as crystal, 
proceeding from beneath the throne of God and of the 
Lamb. Christ speaking to the Samaritan woman of this 
water says, that it shall be in a man a well of water spring- 
ing up into everlasting life, and if any man thirst let him 
come unto me and drink. And in Isaiah lv. 1, " Ho every 
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," etc. Also Rev. 
xxii. 17, "The spirit and the bride say come, and let him that 
heareth say come, and let him that is athirst come, and 
whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely." 
The water of life is the water of which all must be born 
again; and when the Spirit of God takes this pure water of 
life or grace, and applies it to the soul, then is that soul born 
of water and of the spirit, then is that soul saved by the 
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy 
Ghost. This is the only spiritual soul cleansing and eternal 
life-giving water which abideth v ith the spirit, in the soul 
like a well of water swelling and rising and bearing the soul 
on up to her eternal home. This view and this alone agrees 
w r ith what our Saviour taught JNicodemus. For the change 
spoken of in that discourse of our Saviour was spiritual, 
"that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," and in verse 7, 
" marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again." 
And as we have said of the spirit as quoted from Titus: 



454 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

il Saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the 
Holy Ghost." Let us therefore leave the ordinances of the 
Lord's house to fill the place and answer the purpose which 
he designed, and never dare to place water baptism in the 
holy place, or in the place of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, 
or the blood of Jesus Christ. 

Water baptism is an outward sign and symbol of saving 
grace, which grace we have said is always applied by the 
Holy Ghost — the proper agent. And these are called by the 
same name — baptism. The one is a type, the other an anti- 
type; the one essential and saving, the other only a type of 
that which does save us. The true, the essential baptism by 
which we are saved, is poured out or shed forth, or comes 
upon; and yet this is baptism — saving and essential baptism. 
If, therefore, the true or spiritual water is poured out, should 
there not be an agreement between the sign and the thing 
signified? Between the type and the anti-type? Between 
the baptism with water and the baptism of the Holy Ghost ? 
God being the author of both, the nature and design as well 
as the mode of the operation of both, are known unto him, 
and as he intended to represent the all-essential by the use of 
an outward sign, surely there must be a fitness in the sign 
to represent the thing signified, and a most beautiful analogy 
between them. 

If there is a failure in this case, it is the first time Jehovah 
has ever failed to choose an appropriate type to represent an 
anti-type in his Church since Moses wrote, or the world 
began. Great multitudes of wise and good people in all 
ages have wondered why the Great Head of the Church had 
left the mode of baptism so much enveloped in clouds and 
darkness. But when we remember that the Spirit is truth, 
and is to bring all things to light, and that he is spoken of 
as being poured out and that this outpouring on the day of 
pentecost was baptism — the baptism of the Spirit — we see at 
once that the Spirit teaches with infallible certainty how the 
outward sign should be applied. John the Baptist says: "I 
indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that 
cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not 
worthy to bear, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 455 

and with fire."— Matt, in, 11. Here John calls both by the 
same name, and evidently in the relation of type and anti- 
type. "And there are three that bear witness in earth, the 
spirit, and the water, and the blood : and these three agree 
in one." — 1 John v. 8. That is in the remission of sins by 
the blood of Christ, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, 
and as the Spirit is poured or shed forth, so was the blood, 
and so should the water. Then will there be an agreement 
between the outward sign and the baptism of the Spirit, and 
the Spirit will be our guide as to the right mode of baptism, 
for the Spirit is truth, infallible truth. 

Types under the Old Testament dispensation pointing to 
the Messiah, were sometimes understood but in part until 
Christ appeared, who taught as never man taught, and 
brought dark things to light, and made known unto his 
disciples the nature and power of his kingdom, and 
expounded unto them the Scriptures, but promised more 
light when the Spirit should come. 

"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
bear them now; howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come, he 
will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of 
himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, 
and he will show you things to come." And as they prayed 
and waited for the promised influence, behold, on the day of 
pentecost the Spirit was poured out, and fell upon them, and 
they were enlightened by the Holy Ghost, endowed with 
power from on high, and many were converted. And to us 
it appears as clear as the unclouded sun at noonday, that the 
people were baptized at the same place by pouring, in like 
manner as the Spirit had been poured out, and were added 
to the Church forthwith. How plain ! How like the ordi- 
nance of God's appointment ! 

Baptism is also the divinely appointed initiatory means by 
which all who are interested in the grace of God and the 
atonement of his Son, should enter into covenant with the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in which awful names they 
receive the ordinance. 

Here is seen the seal of the Most High, to make good 
what he had promised in accordance with the gospel stipula- 



456 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

tions. And those who receive the sign and seal, engage on 
their part to be the Lord's forever — to love, honor, adore, 
and praise the triune God forever and ever. 

It is therefore evident that baptism is, in this respect, what 
circumcision was in the Jewish church. Circumcision had a 
spiritual signification ; so has baptism. Circumcision was 
the initiatory means then; baptism is now, or there is none. 
Circumcision was a sign and seal to Abraham and his seed 
then; "And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of 
the righteousness of the faith, which he had, yet being uncir- 
cumcised that he might be the father of all them that 
believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness 
might be imputed to them also." — Rom. iv. 11. "For as 
many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on 
Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither 
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all 
one in Christ. And if ye are Christ's then ye are Abraham's 
seed, and heirs according to the promise." — Gal. in. 27, 28, 
and 29. How perfectly the language of Paul concerning 
baptism sustains the opinion advanced relative to circum- 
cision and baptism. Indeed, the Word of God not only 
demonstrates this truth, but gives us the blessed assurance 
that the promise is the same precious promise, including 
Christ and all his fullness, to Jew and Gentile, both under 
the old and new dispensations. Then is Abraham the father 
of us all, though he was circumcised and we baptized, by 
which we put on Christ (or the Christian name) and are 
Abraham's seed, and of the same family and heirs according 
to the promise which God made to Abraham. 

Finally, in .baptism we are taught the doctrine of the 
Trinity, and the necessity of divine influence and of regener- 
ation and sanctification by the power of the Holy Ghost, and 
the worship which is due the Holy and undivided Three, 
whose names are to be invoked in Christian baptism as one 
great essential. 

2. What constitutes the Christian baptism. 

First. A divinely appointed and qualified administrator or 
minister of the gospel called and sent by the Great Head of 
the Church. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 457 

Second. A proper subject entitled by the plan and arrange- 
ment of God to receive the ordinance. 

Third. Water is the element which God hath appointed to 
be used in the ordinance. 

Fourth. The minister to baptize the subject with water in 
the name of the Father, and. of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost. 

All Protestant Christians who believe in and practice 
baptism, are agreed in the above, however they may differ in 
the mode or subject of baptism. They all hold that wher- 
ever the above named four constituents concentrate, they 
constitute the baptism of which Christ is the institutor. 
And in all cases where either of them is wanting, that it is 
not the Christian ordinance, and will not be owned as such 
by the Great Head of the Church, who knows what baptism 
is. Suppose that after Christ commanded baptism to be 
administered in the name of the Trinity, even Paul in giving 
baptism had left out the proper names, or either of them and 
had baptized in his own name, all who knew the commission 
would have disowned it, and God would have condemned 
the man and his practice. No command of God is more 
clear than the command to baptize in the name of the 
Trinity, and baptism cannot be valid without this name, for 
it is the very soul of Christian baptism. And if the mode 
or quantity of water were as important as some professing 
Christians would have all men believe, surely it would have 
been presented with equal clearness, but this has not been 
done. And although we may affirm with equal certainty 
that water is the element to be used, who will dare say that 
it must be used in a certain quantity and one only way, to 
constitute Christian baptism, when the Great Head of the 
Church has not so said? 

Although we do not believe that the particular mode of 
water baptism is as clearly taught as the doctrine of the 
Trinity, and would in charity "leave every one to the answer 
of a good conscience," yet if there is a certainty as to the 
particular mode taught in the Bible, it must be learned (as 
we before stated) from the spirit of truth, and the baptism 
which John said Christ would administer, to-wit: "The 
30 



458 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

^baptism, of the Holy Ghost," and from the mode of operation 
an rthat case, which was a coming down, or pouring upon, 
.and mot ?an immersion into. In thus choosing for ourselves 
\we woUld .not interfere with the bounden duties of others, 
'but in the spirit of love admit that baptism may be valid 
though not administered in the mode we prefer, when all the 
proper constituents are found in place, viz: An authorized 
minister; a proper subject; water used; and in the name of 
the Trinity. 

PART II. 

3. The Mode. — In giving the scriptural mode of water 
baptism, we make no pretensions to infallibility, but shall 
endeavor to give our views clearty, being governed by 
the Scriptures of divine truth and the Spirit of truth, 
which dictated to those holy men of God who penned 
them, giving good heed to know the modus operandi of 
the Holy Spirit and the sense in which he has used the 
word baptism, and also to the records made by the 
evangelists of baptism as it occurred in their day, and 
especially from the time the command was given by the 
Saviour to baptize the nations of the world. Much of 
the controversy between Peclo- and Anti-Pedo-Baptists as 
to the right mode of baptism has of late been on the 
"leaning of the word baptism, the former maintaining that 
it has more meanings than one, viz., to tinge, to dye, 
to stain, to purify, to sprinkle, to pour, and to immerse; 
whilst the latter have labored long and hard to prove that it 
means immerse, and means nothing else. For the purpose, 
therefore, of proving their position on the meaning of the 
word, some of their standard writers on baptism have 
brought into the field of controversy quite a number of 
extracts from the writings of learned Pedo-Baptist writers 
as corroborating testimony in favor of immersion, who, 
notwithstanding preferred and practiced baptism in a differ- 
ent mode. If this were strictly true, it would be strange 
inconsistency indeed in those good and learned Pedo-Baptists 
to believe and practice one thing and testify another, but 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 459 

could not be very good testimony in favor of immerson, as 
it would be giving no evidence of their moral honesty. No 
wise court of justice would attach much importance to such 
testimony, or the testimony of men so morally dishonest as 
to teach one thing and practice another. We are ready to 
admit, however, that some learned Pedo-Baptists have prefer- 
red and practiced baptism by immersion who at the same time 
were the zealous and warm advocates of infant baptism, but 
these are greatly in the minority, the majority being in favor 
of aspersion or effusion, which would have clearly appeared 
if their testimony had been given at large, instead of being 
garbled by those large dealers in extracts. Fairness and 
justice demand the whole truth, neither more nor less. 
These would-be-candid gentlemen, while withholding one part 
and quoting another, should have stated that those authors, 
while they believed baptizo meant to immerse, held it had 
other meanings also, for we believe this fact will be admitted 
by all, or nearly all, learned Pedo-Baptists. It has been 
clearly admitted by Dr. A. Clarke, a man of great learning, 
in the following words : " In what form baptism was 
originally administered has been a subject of serious dispute. 
Were the people dipped or sprinkled? for it is certain bapto 
and baptizo mean both." — See comment on Matt. in. 6, And 
Dr. S. Miller, in his sermons on baptism (pp. 84, 85), says, 
"It is perfectly manifest to every one competent to judge in 
the case, that the Greek words which we translate baptize 
and baptism do undoubtedly signify, in a number of cases, 
in both the Old and New Testaments, the washing with 
water, or the application of water in any way. To immerse 
is undoubtedly one of the senses which may be applied to the 
word, but it is so far from being the universal, the necessary 
meaning, as our Baptist brethren suppose, that it is not even 
the common meaning." And I am well persuaded that the 
venerable Dr. Owen, certainly one of the greatest and best 
men of the day in which he lived, is borne out by truth 
when he pronounces " that no one instance can be given in 
Scripture in which the word we render baptize, does neces- 
sarily signify either to dip or to plunge. In every case the 
word admits of a different sense, and it is really imposing 



460 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

upon public credulity to insist that it always means and must 
necessarily signify immersion. In like manner, if we exam- 
ine the senses manifestly attached to bapto and baptizo by the 
best Greek and classic writers, as shown by the ablest 
lexicographers and critics, the same result will be estab- 
lished. In other words, it will appear that these words are 
used, and often used, to express the ideas of cleansing, 
pouring, washing, wetting, and tinging or dying, as well as 
immersion, and of course that no certain evidence in favor 
of the doctrine of our Baptist brethren can be derived from 
this source. Indeed, a late eminent Baptist writer, whilst he 
strenuously maintains that bapdzo always signifies to immerse, 
acknowledges that he has all the lexicographers against him 
in that opinion." — Car. on Bap., p. 79. The extracts given 
above, together with the clearly expressed opinion of Schriv- 
ilius, Schleusner, Schapula, Hedericus, Parkhurst, Ainsworth, 
Leigh, Buck, Cole, Passor, Stephanus, Suidas, Conlor, Wahl, 
Greenfield, and others, will show at once the opinion of 
great and learned men on the meaning of the word, who 
were competent to judge in the case, who affirm that the 
word has more than one signification. If this is true, so far 
as human wisdom is concerned, we appeal in vain to the 
learned of either side to decide conclusively the particular 
mode of water baptism, and if ever we arrive at a definite 
conclusion on this subject, it must be done by a close observ- 
ance of all the circumstances connected with baptism, and 
the sense in which the Spirit of God has made use of the 
word, for if divines had paid more attention to the Word of 
God, and the uses made of the word baptize and baptism by 
the Hoty Spirit, they would have been more correct, both 
with regard to their notions of water baptism as well as the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost, and few immersionists would at 
this day either deny the baptism of the Holy Ghost or con- 
tend for the senseless or an ti- scriptural notion of an immer- 
sion into the Holy Ghost. But for the sake of controversy, 
believing, as they do, that baptism is immersion and immer- 
sion baptism, some have not only contended for an immer- 
sion into the Holy Ghost and into fire, but that water 
baptism is inseparably connected with grace, and is essential 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 461 

to the soul's salvation, forasmuch as the Bible speaks of a 
baptism which is saving. 

We shall call your attention to the Word of God more 
particularly, and to the senses in which the word baptize has 
been used by the Spirit of God. The evangelists inform us 
that the Pharisees and all the Jews except they wash (in the 
original baptize) their hands eat not, and in Mark vn. 4, 
"And when they come from the market, except they wash 
(baptize) they eat not." They likewise (baptized) washed 
their cups, pots, brazen vessels, tables, and couches. How r 
the Jews washed their hands before their common meals 
does not appear; whether by dipping one or both hands into 
the water or having it poured upon them ; but to suppose 
that they immersed themselves entirely after returning from 
the market is unreasonable, and still more so that they 
immersed their tables or couches upon which they reclined 
at their common meals. These washings, we conclude, were 
of a ceremonial character, and performed on other ceremonial 
purifications of the Jews by sprinkling. The Apostle 
Paul, writing to the Hebrews and speaking of the Jewish 
ritual, says it stood in meats and drinks and divers wash- 
ings (baptism) (Heb. ix. 10), and then he informs us how 
these baptisms were accomplished: "For when Moses had 
spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, 
he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and 
scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all 
the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which 
God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with 
blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry." 
— Heb. ix. 19-21. If the language of inspiration is entitled 
to any weight, these baptisms were certainly sprinklings, and 
nothing but sprinklings. 

Christ says, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and 
how am I straitened till it be accomplished (in the margin 
pressed) ? " — Luke xn. 50. The baptism spoken of in this 
place by our Lord is a baptism of suffering and of death, for 
he was in a short time to feel the weight of divine justice, 
and being pained and pressed, he said to those of his dis- 
ciples who were with him, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 



462 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

even unto death." — Matt. xxvi. 38; also, Luke xxn. 44: 
" And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly : and his 
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to 
the ground." In these circumstances connected with the 
baptism here spoken of, we see not the first feature of immer- 
sion. The sorrow was great in his soul, and in his agony he 
sweat as it were great drops of blood. But no immersion 
into wrath. To every candid reader it must be clearly 
manifest that the Son of God alluded to his sufferings and 
death by the use of the word baptism, for the sorrow which 
he felt and endured was unto death. The use of the word 
baptism in reference to death will throw some light on a 
connection of scripture in Romans. (But more of this at a 
proper time.) 

When the mother of James and John requested the 
Saviour that they might sit the one on his right hand and 
the other on his left in his kingdom, Jesus said, " Ye know 
not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I 
shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am 
baptized with? They said unto him, We are able. And he 
saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be 
baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with," etc. — 
Matt. xx. 22, 23. We are taught in the Word of God that 
all the apostles were persecuted, and many of them, if 
history is to be relied on, suffered martyrdom. If that was 
not the baptism that they were to be baptized with, we know 
of no other; for they were not baptized with water in any 
way that we know of, and no correct theologian will hazard 
the opinion that they we baptized with divine justice (as 
they were not to atone for sin). The most reasonable con- 
clusion, therefore, is that they suffered and died martyrs for 
the cause of their Master. We cannot see the least feature 
of an immersion in any of the circumstances which surround 
our Saviour or his two disciples, yet our Baptist brethren 
have not only tortured the above expressions of our Saviour 
into an immersion, but likewise the following expressions of 
the Apostle Paul : " Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye 
should be ignorant how that our fathers were under a cloud, 
and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 463 

Moses ill the cloud and in the sea." — 1 Cor. x. 1, 2. How 
could the "fathers" whom Paul affirms "were baptized in the 
sea," be immersed? when he also affirms that they passed 
through the Red sea as by dry land, which agrees well with 
the relation of Moses : " And the children of Israel went 
into the midst of the sea upon dry ground : and the waters 
were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their 
left."— Ex. xiv. 22, 29, and Heb. xi. 29. How, then, were 
they baptized? Some say they were not baptized, but being 
surrounded with or entombed in water (which was a fine 
figure of immersion), they were only figuratively baptized. 
The Word of God, however, plainly declares that they were 
baptized (not immersed, really or figuratively; how could 
they be when on " dry ground ? "). Every circumstance goes 
to affirm that they were sprinkled. In Matt. in. 11, John 
uses the word baptize twice in one verse, saying, " I indeed 
baptize you with water, but he (Christ) shall baptize you 
with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Here it may be stated 
that John does not inform us as to the mode in which Christ 
would administer the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but that 
the thing would be done by him. Christ makes use of the 
same words, in substance, before his ascension into heaven, 
saying, " John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be 
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." — Acts 
i. 5. This was to be accomplished in a short time — " not 
many days hence." That we may the better understand the 
words of John and our Saviour, we will refer you to the 
language of the Lord Jesus upon another occasion, referring 
to the same Spirit; u But when the Comforter is come . . . 
from the Father, ... he shall testify of me." — John 
xv. 26. And again, " It is expedient for you that I go away : 
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; 
but if I depart, I will send him unto you." — John xvi. 7. It 
is worthy of remark that Christ commanded his disciples not 
to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the 
Father, which, saith he, "ye have heard of me;" and then 
in the next verse he speaks of the time when this baptism 
shall be administered. When that time (the day of Pente- 
cost) had fully come, the disciples were " all with one accord 



464 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, 
as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where 
they were sitting. Aud there appeared unto them cloven 
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And 
they were all filled w T ith the Holy Ghost, and began to speak 
with tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." — Acts 
II. 1-4. It is very manifest that the Spirit, the Comforter, 
and the Holy Ghost are the same divine person, and his 
office is various. He reproves, comforts, teaches, and sanc- 
tifies, aud was poured out or shed forth on the memorable 
occasion above referred to. If John understood the meaning 
of what he said when he spoke of this baptism of the Holy 
Ghost, and he certainly did, it necessarily follows that he 
meant a pouring or shedding forth by the word baptism, and 
if he used the word in that sense in reference to the baptism 
of the Holy Ghost, he used it evidently in the same sense in 
reference to water baptism ; the one being used immediately 
after the other, the less being a just representation of the 
more important, both being shedding forth and not a dipping 
into. If nothing is baptism but immersion, as our Baptist 
friends affirm, neither the disciples nor any one else has ever 
been baptized by the Holy Ghost, and the words of John 
and our Saviour have failed altogether. To what absurdities 
will people be led to support some favorite hypothesis ! But 
to support the assumption that immersion is baptism and 
baptism immersion, who would have thought of an immer- 
sion into the Holy Ghost? or have denied entirely the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost, with the express declaration of 
the Word of God and the teachings of the Holy Spirit to 
the contrary notwithstanding? 

It is so evident that baptism was administered on the day 
of Pentecost by an outpouring of the Spirit, that some 
immersionists are forced to admit it, but contend that the 
design of this baptism was to confer miraculous gifts, and 
ceased altogether with them. This shift would avail them 
but little, even if true, as the question would naturally recur, 
How or what way was the baptism of the Holy Ghost 
accomplished on the day of Pentecost or at any other time 
when given? Was it by pouring and shedding forth or by 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 465 

dipping into the Holy Ghost ? Verily by a pouring out. And 
if ever the baptism of the Holy Ghost at any time was by 
pouring, then is pouring valid in the fullest sense of the 
word, if we believe that John and our Saviour knew what 
baptism was or what the words which they used meant. 

Surely the teachings of our Saviour and the example of 
the Holy Spirit of truth are better guides than the opinions 
of men or the authority of books, other than the pure 
Word of God, and until we are convinced that the Son of 
God knew not what he meant by the word baptize, or that 
the baptism of the Holy Ghost was other than a pouring, we 
shall feel safe in this matter. Nor do we believe the light of 
later ages more clear than that which inspired the holy 
apostles of God. " And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost 
fell on them, as on us from the beginning (meaning the day 
of Pentecost). Then remembered I the word of the 
Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with w T ater ; 
but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Foras- 
much then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto 
us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that 
I could withstand God?" — Acts xi. 15-17. This is the 
language of one of the apostles relative to the matter. No 
sooner did the Holy Ghost fall on the Gentiles at the house 
of Cornelius, as it had done on the apostles and people on 
the day of Pentecost, than Peter remembered the words of 
the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with 
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. He 
recognized in this outpouring that precious baptism which 
he had received in fulfilment of the promise of the Saviour, 
and he bears testimony (Acts n.) that if there was any 
immersion, as is contended, it was only in the sound which 
filled the house whilst the Holy Ghost was poured out on 
the people and not into the house. 

As to the mode in which the three thousand were baptized 
on that memorable day we deem it unnecessary to tax the 
patience of the reader with a very lengthy argument, foras- 
much as the history given by Luke of the whole transaction 
is very plain and easy of comprehension. This was the first 
time baptism was administered after the resurrection of 



466 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Christ and the giving of the commission by him to baptize 
all nations in the name of the Trinity — the first time that it 
was ever administered in the name of the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost. If it should, therefore, appear that baptism 
was not on this occasion given by dipping but in some other 
mode, then the right and scriptural mode of water baptism 
will well nigh be determined. The Word of God says that the 
disciples, the number being about one hundred and twenty, 
were with one accord in one place waiting for the promise 
made to them by their Lord, and suddenly there came a 
sound from heaven, as of a mighty rushing wind, and it 
filled all the house where the disciples were sitting. The 
power of God was wonderfully displayed, and the news went 
out through Jerusalem, and the people came together and 
were pricked in their hearts and cried, Men and brethren, 
what must we do to be saved? while others mocked and 
said, These men are filled with new wine. But Peter 
preached and defended the work of God, and said this was 
that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, " And it shall 
come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out 
my Spirit upon all flesh," etc. — Acts n. 16, 17. Here Peter 
recognizes an ancient prophecy and the fulfilment of an 
especial promise of God, and also the fulfilment of the 
promise of the Son, as he said, Te shall be baptized with 
the Holy Ghost not many days hence. This was all at the 
same place, and in this place and on the same day there were 
added to the Church by baptism about three thousand souls. 
(See Acts n. 2, 41.) It is clearly manifest that these did not 
go off in search of founts and streams to be immersed, but 
were baptized by pouring, in like manner as Christ had 
baptized them with the Holy Spirit. Here, then, are two 
baptisms, the one with the Holy Ghost and the other with 
water, the latter being the represetation of the former, and 
both poured upon the people. Baptists, for the purpose 
of proving that the three thousand on the day of Pen- 
tecost were immersed, have labored to show the possi- 
bility of such a thing; first, by the number and size of the 
pools about Jerusalem ; and, second, by the number of admin- 
istrators; third, the time allotted for the work; and, fourth, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 467 

the speed which each one might make in administration. 
We have heard of some immersionists who, in their great 
zeal for immersion, have administered this solemn and sacred 
ordinance and timed their speed, supposing that the apostles 
could make as great speed as themselves. All this must be 
to little purpose unless they prove that they went off to some 
suitable place for dipping. This, however, is contrary to the 
record of truth, which would not have been silent in a 
matter of such moment, if the views of immersionists be 
correct. 

The baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch has been relied on 
by immersionists as very good and clear proof of immersion, 
forasmuch as it is said they went down into the water, both 
Philip and the eunuch, and that they came up out of the 
water; and they infer that Philip must have immersed him 
or there would have been no propriety in going into and 
coming out of the water. Let us examine this case with 
care, in connection w T ith all the facts which' relate it, and see 
how much it favors dipping. And, first, the eunuch was 
returning from Jerusalem, where he had been to worship 
God, and was there, as A. Clarke says, at the feast of the 
Jews, and being a proselyte to their religion, he was reading 
the scriptures of the Old Testament as he returned from the 
city. Second, the Spirit directed Philip to go near and join 
himself to the chariot of the eunuch, and when he went 
found he found him reading the fifty- third chapter of Isaiah 
(though not laid off* in chapters at that time). Third, Philip 
began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus, 
and showed him the general tenor of the sacred writings ; 
that Jesus was the Christ or Messiah, and that in his person, 
birth, life, passion, doctrines, death, and resurrection, the 
scriptures of the Old Testament were fulfilled. This was a 
gospel sermon and by it the eunuch was converted to Chris- 
tianity. And, fourth, he described baptism. And as they 
went their way they came to a certain water, and the eunuch 
said, Here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? 
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thy heart, thou 
mayest. The arrangement being now made, and there being 
water there, the chariot was commanded to stand still, and 



468 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

as a matter of consequence, both went down to the water, 
and Philip baptized him in the same mode which was 
practiced on the day of Pentecost, which we have shown 
was at the place at which they were converted, and by 
pouring. When and where did the eunuch learn that Christ 
required baptism of those who believed on his name ? The 
most reasonable conclusion is that in reading the prophecy 
of Isaiah he had read where it is said of Christ, "that he 
shall sprinkle many nations," which sounds very much like 
the commission that he gave to his apostles to baptize all 
nations, for it is immediately connected, being the fifteenth 
verse of the preceding chapter, from which Philip took his 
text, so to call it, and if the eunuch had read this specific 
prophecy concerning Christ, and which must as certainly be 
fulfilled as any other scripture, how could he understand 
that it was to be fulfilled, either by an immersion into the 
Holy Ghost or into water? And again, we ask, how could 
Philip in preaching unto him Jesus, expound the sprinkling 
of many nations to signify either a dipping into the Spirit or 
into water? And yet it must be manifest that Philip did 
not pass by this important passage, one having so direct a 
connection with the gospel kingdom, but in explaining the 
prophecy, brought it to bear on the mind of the eunuch 
before his baptism. But, on the supposition that the eunuch 
never saw it and Philip made no mention of it, yet it is no 
less true of Christ that he shall sprinkle many nations with 
something. If with water, this establishes the mode of 
baptism ; but if with the pure w T ater of life, the out- 
ward ordinance must represent the spiritual baptism 
which Christ was to administer. In the similarity between 
" sprinkle many nations " and " he shall baptize you with 
the Holy Grhost and with fire," both referring to Christ, 
nothing can be more reasonable than to suppose that Philip 
in preaching Jesus Christ to the eunuch taught him concern- 
ing the ordinances of his Lord's house, and the expediency 
of water baptism does not prove that either the eunuch or 
Philip went under the water, but only into it, and then 
Philip baptized him, and they came up out of it; or they 
went down to it, and Philip baptized him and they came 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 469 

from it, which is a fair translation of the text, as the learned 
inform us; for if the present reading of the passage proves 
that the eunuch went under it, it proves that Philip went 
under it also, for it includes both. But as no immersionists 
will affirm this, surely no one will find fault if we say that 
neither went under, but went to, and when Philip had 
baptized him, came up from the water. 

"We would remark in the close, if this account of baptism 
does not favor immersion, none does, as recorded in the ~New 
Testament, from the day of Pentecost to the time when 
Christian baptism was fir3t administered, to the end of the 
book. See this account in the eighth chapter of Acts. 

We shall next briefly notice the baptism of Paul, who, it 
seems, was not only baptized in a house, but at the time he 
received the ordinance was standing up, as is very manifest 
from the Word of God and from all the circumstances con- 
nected with his baptism. See Acts ix. 17, 18 : " And Ananias 
went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his 
hands on him said, brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that 
appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me 
that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the 
Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it- 
had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, 
and' was baptized." We learn from the narrative given by 
the evangelist that Paul was in the house of one Judas, in 
the city of Damascus, when Ananias, at the command of the 
Lord, approached him and commanded him to arise and be 
baptized (Acts xxn. 16) : " And now why tarriest thou ? arise 
and be baptized." He obeyed without delay; arose, as the 
text says, and was baptized before he went out of the house or 
sat down; for we must conclude that the inspired writer 
having recorded the facts of his being in a house and stand- 
ing up, would not have left out so material a portion of the 
history of the transaction as his going out and being dipped, 
if any such a thing had an existence in fact, but nothing 
of the kind is even hinted at in all the Bible, evidently 
because it never occurred. But an objector might say that it 
was possible for him to have been baptized by immersion in 
the house; to which we reply, Although it is possible, it is 



470 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

not at all probable, forasmuch as the apostle was standing on 
his feet and could not have been dipped in that position (the 
Word of God being our guide), he neither sat down nor 
went out until he was baptized. The first thing mentioned 
after his baptism is that he ate and was strengthened. Now, 
as dipping is of so much more importance to Baptists than 
eating,, why is so important a fact left out, whilst those of 
minor importance are faithfully recorded ? In the history 
of Paul's baptism we have a Bible proof against immersion 
and in favor of a different mode, which is next to omnipo- 
tent. This man was a called minister, chosen of God, and 
sent more especially to the Gentiles ; and God who sent him 
has for some wise purpose ordered both his conversion and 
baptism to be given in minute detail, which not only gives 
full satisfaction as to the mode of baptism, but the most 
incontrovertible proof in favor of the work of God's Spirit 
in the soul of man, for it is certain he was no Campbellite. 
" Christ (says he) sent me not to baptize, but to preach the 
gospel." — 1 Cor. i. 17. 

In the baptism at the house of Cornelius, we shall see that 
Peter entered into the house of Cornelius before he began to 
preach, and the evidence is clearly in favor that the whole 
service was conducted in the house, and that the converts on 
that occasion were, like Paul, baptized in the house. Acts 
x. 25: u And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him." 
Acts xi. 12 : " And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing 
doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, 
and we entered into the man's house" (Cornelius', as the 
reading will show). Then it was while Peter was preaching 
the Holy Ghost fell on them, which greatly astonished those 
Jews who came with Peter (seeing the gift of the Holy Ghost 
poured out on the Gentiles). Then said Peter, " Can any man 
forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have 
received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded 
them to be baptized in the name of the Lord." (See Acts 
x. 44-48.) Compare this with the baptism of Paul, and the 
plain inference is that the water was brought and they were 
baptized in like manner; as the Spirit was poured out on 
them, so did they receive the water. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 471 

The baptism of the jailer and his household at Phillippi 
leads to the same conclusion. The circumstances connected 
with this baptism preclude the possibility of immersion with- 
out doing the greatest injustice to truth and reason. 

Paul and Silas were cast into prison by the jailer to keep 
them safely, who, having received such injunctions, cast 
them into the inner prison or dungeon, and made their feet 
fast in the stocks. At the hour of midnight, while these 
men of God were praying and praising the Most High, there 
was a great earthquake, which shook the prison, and every 
one's bands fell off, and the doors were opened, and the 
jailer awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors 
open, drew out his sword and would have killed himself, 
supposing that the prisoners had fled, but Paul prevented 
this bloody deed by saying, We are here. Then the jailer 
called for a light and went in and fell down before Paul and 
Silas, and as the evangelist informs us brought them out; 
most evidently out of the inner prison, where he had cast 
them for safe keeping, but not out of the outer prison ; this 
he had uo right to do, forasmuch as the magistrates had put 
them in prison. But he had a right to take them out of the 
inner prison, where he himself had cast them, and bring 
them into the outer prison, where it seems the magistrates 
had first put them. There can be no good sense in speaking 
of an inner prison unless there was an outer or common 
prison connected therewith. It is, moreover, very manifest 
that there were more doors than one, and equally so that the 
jailer was sleeping in some part of the building, or how 
could he at the hour of midnight have been so alarmed at 
the shaking of the prison and at once have seen that the 
doors were opened? How reasonable to suppose that he 
lodged near, and immediately saw the open doors, and went 
into the inner prison and brought Paul and Silas into the 
place where the authorities had placed them ? When he 
and his heard a short sermon, they washed the stripes of Paul 
and Silas, and were baptized the same hour, he and all his. 
No going oft' in search of streams for the purpose of dipping ; 
nor would he who drew his sword with the intention of killing 
himself, have returned, having taken the prisoners beyond 



472 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

the precincts of the prison ; nor would those God-fearing 
men have led the jailer and his family off for the purpose of 
dipping, and thereby exposed them to the severity of the 
infuriated magistrates, and on the next day have acted with 
so much duplicity, for when the magistrates requested Paul 
and Silas to leave the prison in a private manner, they refused 
to leave until taken out by the same authorities which at 
first imprisoned them there. These circumstances must 
appear conclusive when we remember that one of these 
ministers who officiated on this occasion had himself been 
baptized in a house, standing, and could feel no interest in 
leading the jailer out of the prison-house near the hour of 
midnigt to dip him under the water. 

PART III. 

4. The Authorized Subjects. — The mode of baptism having 
been explained, we may proceed to consider its authorized 
subjects. That believers are proper subjects for baptism as 
they were of circumcision, is not disputed by any who believe 
in the propriet} 7 of this Christian ordinance. The question 
next to be considered is, whether the infant seed of believing 
parents are entitled to the blessings of the covenant of grace, 
and by the act of their parents to be dedicated and brought 
into covenant with God, by the ordinance of baptism as they 
were by the ordinance of circumcision. 

That the covenant which God made with Abraham is the 
covenant of grace, including all the essentials of complete 
salvation, and is identified with the gospel plan as published 
by the authority of Jesus Christ, may be fairly demonstrated 
by comparing Gen. xn. 3, with Gal. in. 8: — "And I will 
bless them that bless thee, and in thee shall all the families 
of the earth be blessed." The apostle Paul, quoting or refer- 
ring to this promise made to Abraham, says: "And the 
Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen 
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, 
saying, In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." 
Paul speaking of the promise made to Abraham, says, " God 
preached the gospel." The blessings then which God prom- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 473 

ised and covenanted to give to all families or nations of the 
earth, were gospel blessings; the blessings of the everlasting- 
covenant — the covenant of grace formed upon the Lord 
Jesus Christ, as Paul clearly proves in the following words : 
"Now to Abraham and his seed w T ere the promise made. 
He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to 
thy seed, which is Christ." Here, then, we are informed 
what the promise meant, and to whom, and through whom 
the gospel blessings were to flow. 

The blessings which God promised to all nations will be 
readily recognized by all readers of the New Testament 
in the commission given by Christ to his first ministers, " Go 
ye unto all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature." And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
in all the world, for a witness unto all nations. Here it will 
be seen that Christ, the promised seed of Abraham, in whom 
all the nations of the world were to be blessed; who being 
the great source of the covenant after having consummated 
the great work of man's redemption, gave his commission to 
make good the promise of God, not only in similar lan- 
guage, but in extent the very same. The gospel tidings 
were to all the w T orld, so were the blessings promised to 
Abraham to all nations, and surely all will see that the 
promise made to Abraham, and the gospel of the grace of 
God, published to the world by the authority of Jesus 
Christ, are in every essential the same plan of salvation. 
"And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, 
and thy seed after thee, in their generations for an everlast- 
ing covenant, to be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee." 
— Gen. xvn. 7. 

By the declarations of Jehovah, the Abrahamic covenant 
is proven to be everlasting, and the blessing promised is rich, 
it is boundless. "I will be thy God, and the God of thy 
seed after thee." Here then are riches and honor, and 
blessing, and glory, and the life that now is and that which 
is to come. Compare this passage of Scripture with Rev. 
xiv. 6: — "And I saw another angel ily in the midst of 
heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them 
that dwell upon the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, 
31 



474 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

and tongue, and people." It must be manifest that the 
everlasting gospel borne by the swift flying angel to the 
nations of the earth, is identically the same as the everlast- 
ing covenant made with Abraham, and were it not that the 
anti-Pedo -Baptists have concluded that the promise or 
covenant that God made to Abraham was national, and 
only included temporal blessings — such as the land of 
Canaan, and national prosperity, we should close this part 
of the argument. But knowing as we do, that they have 
made attempts to do away and overthrow this blessed, 
everlasting covenant (which, if succeeded in, would shroud 
the world in sackcloth of gloom and misery), we shall add a 
few more thoughts. The anti-Pedo-Baptists in their 
attempts to do away with the Abrahamic covenant, have 
relied much on Heb. vin., where the apostle, speaking of the 
Jewish rites and ceremonies, or the covenant of works, 
which God gave to the Israelites when he led them out of 
Egypt, says these things were shadows of good things to 
come, but not the things themselves, and were to be done 
away: "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then 
should no place have been sought for the second. For finding 
fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the 
Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of 
Israel, and with the house of Judah ; not according to the 
covenant that I made with their fathers when I took them 
out of the land of Egypt, etc., for this is the covenant that I 
will make with the house of Israel after those day-, saith 
the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and will write 
them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they 
shall be to me a people." The old covenant to be done away 
is that which God made with Israel when he led them out 
of Egypt, and not the covenant which he made with Abra- 
ham; this everlasting covenant is ever new, being perfect. 
God finds no fault with it, for he said to Abraham, I will be 
thy God and the God of thy seed. This is verily what Paul 
says of the new covenant, I will be to them a God, and they 
shall be to me a people. The covenant of grace, or God's 
scheme of mercy, could not be done away because it was 
confirmed by two immutable things, in which it was impos- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 475 

sible fcr God to lie: 1st, the promise; 2d, the oath. For, 
says Paul, when God made promise to Abraham, because he 
could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, 
surely blessing I will bless thee, etc. We may safely assert 
that all who believe in Christ are saved, according to the 
covenant or promise that God made with Abraham, which 
our Baptist brethren would do away. For further proof, see 
Gal. in. 27-29: "For as many of you as have been baptized 
into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor 
Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male 
nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye are 
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to 
the promise." If Paul w T as correct and understood himself, 
our position is fully sustained. That the covenant of 
promise God made with Abraham is the covenant of grace, 
and embraces Christ and all the blessings of the everlasting 
gospel, and all the Lord's people are Abraham's seed and 
heirs according to the promise. The same promise w T as 
spoken of to Adam in the garden. God said the seed of 
the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. Christ is the 
promised seed, for he took not upon himself the nature 
of angels, but he took upon him the seed of Abraham, 
and was made of a woman — made under the law to redeem 
them that were under the law. So, then, we may trace 
this promise from the fall of man to Abraham, and from 
Abraham to Christ the promised seed, who bruised the 
serpent's head, and fully unfolded and published the 
promises or plan of redemption to the nations of the 
world. The wisdom of God is wonderfully displayed in the 
whole plan. Christ is the Alpha and Omega of this precious 
promise, and he who speaks lightly of it and denies it, 
speaks lightly of Christ, and denies the Lord Jesus and the 
entire plan of man's salvation. 

That Abraham so understood it, is manifest from the 
Saviour's own words. He says, "Abraham rejoiced to see 
my day: and he saw it, and was glad." — John viii. 56. He 
believed in the Saviour, and it was imputed unto him for 
righteousness, and he became the father of the faithful, and 
when we believe as he did, we become righteous in like 



476 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

manner, and are the children of Abraham and heirs accord- 
ing to the same precious promise. 

Having shown the identity of the Abrahamic covenant 
and the gospel plan, as published by the authority of Christ, 
we are prepared to take the next step, which is to show that 
circumcision, like baptism, had a spiritual signification, and 
was divinely appointed initiatory in the visible Church, 
under the Old Testament dispensation, and w T as both a sign 
and a seal of the benefits contained in the Abrahamic 
covenant. The great apostle of the Gentiles, who well 
understood the Jewish ritual, having been a strict Pharisee, 
and zealous of the law, shows with all clearness the nature 
and design of circumcision, and proves beyond all doubt that 
its signification was spiritual, and while it was outward in the 
flesh, it signified the circumcising and renewing of the heart 
by divine grace, and all to the honor and the praise of God. 
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is 
that circumcision, which is outward in the fiesh: but he is a 
Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the 
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is 
not of men, but of God." — Rom. n. 28, 29. "For we are the 
circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in 
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." — Phil. in. 
3. "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision 
made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of 
the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." — Col. n. 11. This 
connection of God's Word is too plain to need any comment, 
for it not only proves the scriptural import of circumcision, 
but points to the agent by which the heart is circumcised) 
even the Holy Spirit. Like water baptism, it points 
to the Spirit which circumcises, or baptizes the heart in 
regeneration. The first may be called a Jewish, and the 
latter a Christian circumcisioi , or baptism in view of their 
significations. Our Baptist brethren have contended that 
only temporal things were meant, and connected with 
circumcision, and have too often sneered at the idea of a 
spiritual meaning. True, God promised to give to Abraham 
and his descendants the land of Canaan, w T here afterwards 
the temple stood, and the altar smoked, and the incense 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 477 

burned, and where finally the Saviour was born, lived, suf- 
fered, died, and made good the promise of God to Abraham 
and his seed. And it will be worthy of remark that to the 
people of God, in all ages, belong the good things of earth, 
for they have the promise of the life that now is, and that 
which is to come, whether Paul or Apollus, or Cephas, or 
the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to 
come — all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's. 
And yet, notwithstanding all this earthly inheritance, 
Abraham, according to the promise of God, looked for better 
things, and Paul says, "By faith he sojourned in the land of 
promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with 
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 
for he looked tor a city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God."- Heb. xi. 9, 10. It is manifest, 
therefore, that Abraham looked higher than the land of 
Canaan for the fulfilment of the covenant. He looked for a 
heavenly country, and au eternal city, built upon the precious 
corner stone Christ. When God made the promise to 
Abraham, he then commanded, saying, "Thou shalt keep 
my covenant, therefore, thou and thy seed after thee, in their 
generations. This is my covenant which ye shall keep 
between me and you, and thy seed after thee: every man 
child shall be circumcised." 

The commaud given to Abraham, shows at once that God 
w r as mindful of his offspring, and that the same privileges 
were alike granted to both parents and children, and it was 
as much the duty of Abraham to circumcise his infant seed, 
as it was to receive it himself, and whatever it was to him it 
was evidently designed to be to all. Paul informs us that 
Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the 
righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircum- 
cised, that he might be the father of all men that believe, 
though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be 
imputed to them also. Circumcision w r as a seal of the 
righteousness of faith to Abraham, the father of the faithful, 
and at once it ratified and sealed the covenant in which all 
the families of the earth were to be blessed, and this cov- 
enant seal was ordained of God, in the most solemn manner, 



478 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

to be administered to infants of the tenderest age, and was 
administered for nearly two thousand years in token of their 
relation to God's family, and their right to the privileges and 
benefits in the covenant of grace. It may be affirmed that if 
Abraham entered into covenant with God for himself, he did 
for his children, and if God had a visible Church on earth, 
Abraham was within its pale, and if he was, so were his 
children; for in all ages covenants with his people, from the 
beginning of the world, their infant children have been 
included, and truly and graciously so, in the one now under 
consideration. Who then will say that Abraham was not in 
a Church — the true Church, the Church of the living God? 
or that God had no Church on earth? Certainly, no one 
who believes in the being of a God and the authenticity 
of the Bible. All good people must believe, not only that 
he entered the material* Church of faith in the Son of God, 
but that he also entered the visible Church, by some divinely 
appointed initiatory, which ratified the membership of him- 
self and his children, which must have been circumcision, as 
there was no other, and he received no other. It is, 
therefore, undeniably true, that children have equal rites and 
privileges in all God's gracious covenants, with their parents, 
and that ever since he has had a Church its door has been open 
for their reception, and no one has any right or authority 
from God to close that door against them. Grants once 
made by Jehovah continue until altered or repealed by 
himself. His works are all directed by infinite wisdom, and 
must be right; his promises were made to be fulfilled, and as 
God is faithful and true, none of his words will fall to the 
ground, and the grants which he made to Abraham and his 
seed, to the privileges and blessings of his Church and the 
covenant of grace, must continue until he repeals them. 

Having shown, therefore, that the Abrahamic covenant is 
the covenant of grace, and that he who made the promises 
to Abraham and his infant seed, did most solemnly appoint, 
grant, and ordain, that by the rite of circumcision, he and 
his infant seed should enter into covenant with him, and 
enjoy the privileges of his Church — until it can be shown, 

* Material Church— used in the sense of substantia], or the Latin res. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 479' 

positively, that God has repealed and altered those grants, 
and taken those privileges from his people and their chil- 
dren, the cause of infant rites and privileges stands upon the 
eternal rock, and infant baptism and membership will have 
God's approbation and blessing. Has any such repeal ever 
been shown us? Never. The opposers of infant baptism 
would gladly have availed themselves of such testimony,, 
could it have been found in the Word of God. They would 
gladly have saved themselves the labor and mortification of 
an abortive attempt to prove that the Abrahamic covenant 
was only temporal, and that circumcision had no spiritual' 
signification, and was only connected with an earthly 
inheritance. This attempt and its utter failure but proves 
the badness of their irrational, unnatural, and unscriptural 
cause. 

We shall next prove the essential unity of the Church of 
God, both under the Old and New Testament dispensations, 
and that whatever changes may have taken place in outward 
forms and ceremonies, God's Church in all its fundamental 
features, remain immutably the same. 

The anti-Pedo-Baptists suppose that the Old Testament 
economy was done away, with all its covenants, and that 
a covenant of a different character altogether, has been intro- 
duced, and the New Testament Church differs from the Old, 
in all its essential features. But Christ taught the Jews a 
dieffrent doctrine, saying, " Think not that I am come to 
destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, 
but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth 
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law 
till all be fulfilled."— Matt. v. 17, 18. It is not the work of 
God to destroy his own works, or to do things so imperfectly 
as to have to do them over again ; and if there was any 
medium or plan through which sinners could be saved, 
extending from Adam to the coming of Christ, and there 
certainly was, and it was devised in infinite wisdom, and was 
so perfect as to need no alterations or amendments, Christ 
was as manifestly the foundation and the life of that plan as 
of that of the New Testament, for he is the way, the truth, 
and the life. This is the stone which was set at nought of 



z 



480 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

you builders, which is become the head of the corner; 
neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none 
other name under heaven given among men, whereb}^ we 
must be saved. The God of the Old Testament Church is 
the God of the New, and it is not more certain that God is 
the same, than it is that the covenant of redemption is the 
same, and the Church of God essentially the same in all 
ages — the same Saviour; the same atoning blood; the same 
holy Sanctifier ; the same immutable law; the same heaven, 
and the same divine medium through which to enter it. The 
wisdom of God has so ordained, that there is but one great 
mystical body or Church, frequently represented most beau- 
tifully as a building, a spiritual temple, the materials for 
which are collected from every nation, and kindred, and 
language, upon earth, both old and young, adults and 
infants, bond and free, Jews and Gentiles, patriarchs, 
prophets, apostles, and the Christians of this day, all fitly 
framed together, and resting firmly upon the same foun- 
dation, and that foundation is Jesus Christ the Lord. That 
this is the doctrine of the Bible, see Eph. n. 18-22: "For 
through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the 
Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and for- 
eigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the 
household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the 
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
corner stone : in whom all the building fitly framed together 
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord : in whom ye also 
are builded together for an habitation of God through the 
Spirit." And again, to make it manifest that the Gentiles 
are now called by the preaching of the gospel to participate 
in the blessings of the promise made to Abraham, see Eph 
ill. 6: " That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the 
same body, and partake of the same promise in Christ by 
the gospel." Paul says this mystery was revealed by the 
Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellaw-heirs with the 
Jews or lineal descendants of Abraham, of the same blessed 
promise, and be united to the same body of which Christ 
is the head. There is one fold, and one great Shepherd. If 
any fact is susceptible of proof from the Word of God, it is 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 481 

the unity of the Church. To contend that the old and the 
new are not the same essentially, or that God had no Church 
before Christ, or has had more than one Church, is to all 
intents and purposes at war with the Bible, as an impeach- 
ment of Jehovah's wisdom. For what was the old Church 
without Christ, the Holy Spirit, and saving grave? And 
the new without these would have no soul; with them, both 
would have a soul, which would constitute the same being, 
or Church of the only living and true God — the God of 
Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. 

Forasmuch, then, as God did once grant to infants the 
grace of his Church, and appoint the sign and the seal of 
this grace to be placed upon them, as well as upon adults, in 
token of their rites, and it being infallibly certain that these 
rites and privileges so granted have never been withdrawn, 
it is manifest that they are still to enjoy them, and are, 
by their parents, to be brought into the visible Church — the 
Church of Christ, and into covenant with God, by what- 
soever sign and seal he may have appointed in the place 
of the first, which was circumcision, and as we know of no 
other divinely appointed initiatory but water baptism, infants 
ought to be baptized until God forbids it, or denies them the 
grace of which baptism is now a sign and a pledge, as 
circumcision was under the old dispensation. 

In proof of the ecclesiastical identity of the Church, under 
both dispensations, we may introduce that very decisive 
passage in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, 
in which the apostle, speaking of the Church of God, holds 
it forth under the emblem of an olive tree, and says: "For 
if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, 
what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? 
For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also I10I3 7 : and if 
the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the 
branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, w r ert 
graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root 
and fatness of the olive tree ; boast not against the branches. 
But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root 
thee. Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off", 
that I might be graffed in. Well ; because of unbelief they 



r 



482 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high 
minded, but fear; for if God spared uot the natural branches, 
take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold, therefore, the 
goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; 
but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness : 
otherwise thou shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide 
not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in : for God is able to 
graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive 
tree, which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to 
nature into a good olive tree : how much more shall these, 
which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own 
olive tree?" 

That the apostle is here speaking of the Old Testament 
Church, under the emblem of a good olive tree, must be 
manifest to all who have any knowledge of the sacred 
oracles of God. From this good olive tree some of the 
natural branches, the Jews, were broken off; but the root 
remains the same in all its fatness, and the Gentiles who are 
wild by nature, are grafted into the same olive tree from 
which the natural branches were broken off, and with them 
the naturel branches are made partakers of the fatness of 
the good olive tree. Then it will be seen that the Gentiles, 
who are called by the gospel of Christ into the New Testa- 
ment Church, are, according to Paul's showing, in the 
same Church, from which the disobedient Jews were excided. 
And the same apostle informs us that the natural branches, 
if they continue not in unbelief, shall be graffed into their 
own olive tree — into the identical tree from which they were 
broken off, and that Jews and Gentiles will all be in one 
Church, and be partakers together of the root and fatness of 
the same good olive tree. But if the Old Testament Church 
is not the true Church of God, and the same with the new, 
surely the Gentiles were not in it, for they were in the true 
Church — the New Testament Church. And Paul, when he 
says that the Gentiles were graffed into the same olive tree 
from which the Jews were excided, could not have under- 
stood himself, for if he did, and certainty none will dispute 
it, then the Gentiles who were in the New Testament Church, 
were verily in the old Church, and when the Jews believe in 



LECTURES OF DE. BURROW. 483 

Christ and come into the New Testament Church, as they 
evidently will, they will only be grafted into the same good 
olive tree or Church, in the pale of which their ancestors 
once lived. And we feel warranted in saying that they will 
not be in a different Church from all other Christians, but in 
the same, and will, with their infant seed, enjoy all the 
blessings and privileges which God promised to Abraham, 
to Isaac, and to Jacob, and will not find it, as the opposers 
to infant baptism say, the old rites abolished, and infant rites 
and privileges abrogated and taken away, bat still con- 
tinued to them and to their children, as it was on the day of 
pentecost. We deem it unnecessary to offer any other 
arguments to show that baptism has the place of circum- 
cision, and has been appointed in the stead thereof. 
Forasmuch as we have seen that the covenant of grace is the 
same, and the Church the same — essentially the same in all 
places and ail ages; and that circumcision had a spiritual 
signification, was the divinelj 7 appointed initiatory, and was 
both a sign and a seal of the benefit of the covenant of grace, 
both to adults and infants, it follows, as a matter of course, 
that as circumcision has been taken away, baptism must 
have been appointed in its place, or the Church of God has 
been without any such initiatory and sealing ordinance ever 
since the discontinuance of circumcision, as there is no other 
now known in the Church of Christ, that answers the 
purpose before named, but water baptism. God who 
appointed the former, had the right to remove it. He did 
so, and appointed water baptism in its stead, without making 
the least changes in the essentials of the Church, or in any 
degree repealing those rites and privileges granted to his 
people and their children. Finding, then, that the Church 
is the same identical Church, we are prepared to prove from 
the Word of God that infants were, by the most solemn 
grant and appointment of God, brought into covenant with 
him in this very Church — this New Testament Church, for- 
asmuch as they are the same. Our Baptist brethren require 
of us to show a positive command from God to baptize 
infants. If baptism has come in the room of circumcision, 
as has been proven, then the command once given, and 



484 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

never having been repealed, remains in fall force, and has 
the very same bearing in faver of baptizing children that it 
had in favor of circumcising them. Moreover, if the Great 
Head of the Church had not designed that children should be 
baptized, he would have told his people that they were not 
to be brought into the Church any more. But not so — the 
reverse being true; indeed the entire Kew Testament favors 
their reception into the Church by the ordinance of 
baptism. The gospel commission given by Christ, is fully as 
much in favor of children as of adults, for while neither are 
mentioned, all are evidently included — males, females, and 
infants. Christ died for all; there was grace for all, and the 
commission was to preach the gospel of the grace of God to 
all, and to baptize all — all manifestly for whom there was 
grace. If there was no grace for infants, then it would 
seem they should not have the sign and seal of grace. But 
if they were included in the provisions of the gospel as 
truly as adults, and the commission given cannot be fairly 
understood in any other way, why baptize women, when it 
has not been commanded in so many words? or why incite 
them to the Lord's supper, if we are to look for some 
special command in each division of the human race? By 
this commission, all nations, all classes of every individual 
nation, whether male or female, adults or infants, Jews or 
Gentiles, none are to be rejected — none can be rejected while 
the commission remains as it now is, without a direct viola- 
tion of the command of Christ. Moreover, the commission 
called the gospel commission, fully develops the promise 
which God made to Abraham, in which infants were as 
manifestly included as adults, and no one has ever been able 
to show to the contrary. Then let it be remembered that 
infants were included in this identical scheme of mercy- — 
received the same outward token of God's favor and bless- 
ing with their parents. But this privilege and blessing, 
whatever it was, was to all nations; and it will be seen that 
Christ, in giving his commission, takes all the nations of the 
earth, like the promise made to Abraham, and in much the 
same words, and in all this he did the Father's will, made 
good his promise to Abraham and to all nations under 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 485 

heaven. Let it be conceded, then, that the gospel was to be 
preached to all nations (and no one will deny it), then the 
command is to baptize all nations, which are invariably made 
up of males and females, adults and infants, and we main- 
tain that the command is as positive to baptize as it is to 
preach good tidings to all, and as much in favor of baptizing 
women as men, and infants as adults, for while none of 
either class are specially named, it is incontrovertibly true 
that all are meant by the words all nations. This opinion is 
fully borne out by the preaching of Peter on the day of 
pentecost, when he says : " Repent, and be baptized every 
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of 
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For 
the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that 
are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call" 

Peter, it will be seen, not only instructs the adults who 
were personally guilty, to repent of their sins, but com- 
mands them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, and he 
urges it from the weighty consideration that the promise 
was unto them and their children. Here it will be seen 
that their children were as much interested in the promise 
which the apostle holds forth as the great motive to influ- 
ence them to be baptized, as themselves, and if this was a 
good reason for baptizing them, it must be equally so for 
baptizing their children. The apostle must here be urging 
the baptizing of all who w T ere interested in the promise, or 
why bring in children in this place, when speaking of bap- 
tism? Can anyone suppose that the apostle would say to 
those Jews that they ought to be baptized because the 
promise was as much to their children as to themselves, and 
urge this as a motive? Does not the reasoning of this man 
of God go fully to say that if they had a right to be baptized 
because of their interest in the promise, so had their chil- 
dren equally as good a right, being equal with themselves in 
the promise, and that all, every one who had an interest in 
the promise, should be baptized? A very powerful argument 
indeed, why any one, or all of them should be baptized, if 
the promise spoken of was gracious in its character, or the 
promise which God made to Abraham and to his seed. 



486 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Infants were circumcised for nearly two thousand years, 
in token of their interest in God's promise of grace to them, 
and for that reason if no other, they should receive baptism, 
which has come in the room of circumcision, the promise 
and the privileges and the Church being the same now that 
it was then, and Peter manifestly alludes to this very promise 
in his argument. The Baptist brethren have objected to the 
baptizing of infants on the ground that the} 7 cannot be 
taught, nor can they repent. The same objection, if it has 
any weight, stands equally against circumcising infants, for 
all who are acquainted with the Bible know that God taught 
Abraham, and all the adult Jews were taught or instructed 
before they were circumcised and promised submission to 
the will of heaven. But this teaching was always to adults, 
and no Jew ever thought of denying infants the rite of cir- 
cumcision because they could not be taught, for they 
understood the teachings to reter to parents, and that they 
were to have their children circumcised, for so did God 
teach and command them. And Peter took the same course 
on the day of pentecost with the adult Jews — he taught 
them what God had done for them and for their children, and 
what he would have them do for themselves and for their 
children, for the promise is to you all, therefore be baptized 
every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus. Again, 
the opposers of infant baptism, aware of the force of the 
apostle's reasoning, that if the promise alluded to is the 
Abrahamic, which did as truly include children as adults, 
and secured to them the same token or sign and seal to all 
the privileges and blessings of that covenant, have endeavored 
to evade its force by alleging that Peter referred to the gift of 
the Holy Ghost and not to the Abrahamic covenant. But if 
that were even true, that Peter meant the blessed influence 
and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, this hypothesis would 
afford their cause no relief. First. From the fact that the 
influences and sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost, are 
given through the medium of the identical promise and the 
promised seed which is Christ, as we have before seen. And 
Second. Because this divine outpouring of the Spirit is rep- 
resented by water baptism, and would prove at once that it 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 487 

was promised to children, and that they should not only be 
baptized, but that it should be by pouring water upon them 
in like manner as the gift is poured. And in the third 
place, be the promise what it may, it evidently constituted 
the very life of the apostle's argument to prove that all those 
who were alike interested in it, should be baptized. In 
short, the anti-Pedo-Baptist cause will find no aid from the 
text whatever, nor from any other in all the Bible. All 
unprejudiced Bible readers will manifestly see that the 
promise mentioned by Peter was not to be understood of 
any single grace, but of all the graces and blessings which 
God had promised to Abraham, and through him or his 
seed (Christ) to mankind — all that are afar off, even as many 
as the Lord our God shall call; and that all the objections to 
infant baptism, from first to last, amount to a mere bubble. 
But that which places infant rites and privileges in the 
clearest light is the language of Christ, concerning them 
and his marvelous kindness towards them, which can be 
reconciled with no other doctrine than that for which we 
plead. See Mark x. 13-16 : " And they brought young 
children to him, that he should touch them : and his disci- 
ples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw 
it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, suffer the 
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of 
such is the kingdom of God. Verily I sa} T unto you, whoso- 
ever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, 
he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, 
put his hands upon them, and blessed them." And the 
evangelist Luke says infants. That these were small children 
cannot be doubted for a moment, for Christ took them in his 
arms and blessed them. His language is strange and implies 
much. Suffer, says he, little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God (or the 
Church). Christ shows clearly that they had a right to come 
unto him, forasmuch as they were by the appointment of 
God, members of the kingdom of God, and that they were not 
to be hindered. God made the grant and opened the door of 
the kingdom or Church, and Jesus Christ his Son, knowing 
it never has been revoked, opened wide his arms and 



488 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

received them, and asserted their right. Who, then, of all 
God's ministers and people, hearing such words from the Son 
of God concerning infants, will deny their right to come 
into the arms of the Saviour, the head and the life of tho 
Church, knowing at the same time that it was so in the same 
Church in former days, and that Christ was there, and 
received them with the same merciful design? The language 
of Mark and Luke shows most clearly that Christ not only 
received little children, but would have them received in his 
own name by the ministers of the Church, ministering in his 
name. "And he took a child, and set him in the midst of 
them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto 
them, whosoever shall receive one of such children in my 
name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiv- 
eth not me, but him that sent me." — Mark ix. 36, 37. And 
Luke has it "this child" — "whosoever shall receive this 
child in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever receiveth 
me, receiveth him that sent me," etc. — Luke ix. 48. Chil- 
dren, therefore, have a right to come into the kingdom. 
Christ clearly taught they should be received in his name, 
and that all who received little children, receive both him 
and the Father. If children had never before been the 
object of God's tender care, and been received into the 
Church of God, then might this receiving them in the name 
of the Lord, be misconstrued, and men opposed to infant 
baptism might talk of adults with a child-like disposition as 
being the persons alluded to, and to be received into the 
kingdom in the name of the Lord. But the fact of infant 
membership in the Church of God, ever since God has had a 
Church uii earth, and the manner of reception is written in 
the Bible in God's own words — in words which are plain and 
will be understood, and God will never suffer them to be 
blotted out. The scheme was conceived in the Divine Mind, 
engraven not only on the palms of both Jehovah's hands, 
but in the Saviour's tender and benevolent soul, and was 
expressed by his outstretched arms and his gracious words 
never to be forgotten, " Suffer little children to come unto me, 
and forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom of God" Into 
the kingdom they must come by whatever rite God has 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 489 

appointed. When circumcision was the proper initiatory, 
they were brought into the Church of God by that rite ; but 
since baptism has been appointed in its room, bring them 
into the kingdom by baptism. But if it should be said that 
the kingdom spoken of is not the Church, but the kingdom 
of glory, and that infants are to be received into glory, this 
evasion makes the matter no better on the side of the anti- 
Pedo-Baptists, for the good reason that God never suffered 
any one to enter the kingdom of glory who is unfit for the 
Church militant. Nor will he deny any one a place in the 
Church who is fit for heaven. It must be manifest, how- 
ever, that ministers have but little to do in the way of 
receiving children in the name of the Lord, into the kingdom 
of glory. If therefore they receive them, it must be in their 
own proper field of labor, and most certainly by baptism, 
that being the appointment of heaven both in the case of 
adults and infants. Then all receive the kingdom, or come 
into the visible- Church in the same way. Our Lord says, 
whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of heaven as a 
little child (that is, as a little child receives it), he shall not 
enter therein. But if little children do not receive the 
kingdom nor come into it, then verily to receive the kingdom 
as a little child, is not to receive it at all, nor come into it. 
But if little children do receive it and come into it by Chris- 
tian baptism, then all who would come into the visible 
kingdom must come in at the same door in like manner as 
do children. 

But as all Christians who are free from the bewildering 
and misleading influence of prejudice, must see that the 
Lord Jesus, when he took little children in his arms and 
blessed them, and said of such is the kingdom of God or 
heaven, intended to show that they were to him dear, and to 
be brought into his fold or Church, it would, we might 
suppose, be sufficiently clear to all, that they should be bap- 
tized and received in the ordinary way, there being but one 
visible mode of receiving members into the Church, and but 
one broad command which extends to all of every nation, 
age, or sex, and no one has a right to deny them baptism 
when the Lord says that the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 
32 



490 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

This is plain and cannot be misunderstood, and all the objec- 
tions and shifts which have been made by the opposition, 
has more of the appearance of an attempt to cover over and 
conceal the truth than an humble effort to know and to do the 
Lord's will. This opinion will be fully sustained from their 
whole course in relation to infants and their rights and privi- 
leges in God's Church, and the little regard which they have 
manifested towards his most wise and gracious dealings with 
them, as w T ell as his positive enactments in their favor from 
the first, which have never been altered, nor have they been 
able to show the coloring of evidence to the contrary. But 
all their arguments are against both the old and new dispen- 
sations of the Church, and are emphatically condemned by 
the Old and .New Testaments, and the practice of God's 
ministers in every age. When we speak, therefore, of 
households or families which were baptized by the first 
ministers of Jesus Christ, we speak intelligibly of what has 
already been the order, of God's house. If it were a new 
thing and a thing unknown before for believing adults and 
their infant seed to be taken into covenant with God, and 
Christ had said nothing concerning infants and their right to 
the kingdom, then might the anti-Pedo-Baptists object to 
infant baptism, with some degree of plausibility, and labor 
to show that there were no infants in all the families said to 
have been baptized by the apostles and their successors: but 
so long as these facts are known, and the Bible remains to 
teach and to guide mankind, infant rights will continue to 
be recognized by a large majority of the Christian Church, 
and its advocates will stand upon an eternal rock from which 
they never can be moved. We may notice first, the case of 
Lydia and her household, in proof of the apostolic practice 
of baptizing minors. "And a certain woman named Lydia, 
a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped 
God, heard us : whose heart the Lord opened, that she 
attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And 
when she was baptized, and her household, she brought us," 
etc. — Acts xvi. 14, 15. Here it will be seen that the Lord 
opened Lydia's heart, that she attended unto the word of ' 
the Lord, and was baptized, and her household. That her 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 491 

household consisted of persons either adults or minors, 
cannot be disputed, who were as certainly baptized as she 
was, and whether they were her children or not, it effects 
not the argument in the least, as they were manifestly under 
her control and guardian care, and were, according to the 
narrative, given to the Lord in baptism, by her who was the 
only one of the number who believed in the Lord, or whose 
heart, in the language of the text, the Lord opened. This 
woman is spoken of as a believer and faithful worshipper of 
God, but nothing of the kind is said of her household — no 
intimation that there was one believer among them. Strange, 
indeed, if her household were a household of believing 
adults, to speak definitely of her faith and of what the Lord 
had done for her, and say nothing of what he had done for 
any of the family, when faith, in order to adult baptism, is 
so important. Yet notwithstanding all this, zealous anti- 
Pedo-Baptists can believe that Lydia's household was a 
household of believing adults, when the Word of God not 
only does not favor it, but goes to condemn it, for the 
language used in the case is such as can only comport with 
the sentiment that she was the only believer in the family at 
the time, aud that they, being minors, were baptized on the 
faith of their parent. How often do we see similar records 
made by the advocates of infant baptism, when the head or 
heads of families believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? It is 
said that he and his wife believed aud were baptized, and 
their household or family. But who ever heard of a Baptist 
saying that he or she believed, and I baptized that one and 
the household, without saying any thing of the conversion 
of any other member of the family? No one, unless said 
through policy in modern days. The only proof which 
anti-Pedo-Baptists have introduced to show that Lydia's 
household was a household of believers, is such as proves 
their cause to be ruined for the want of proof from the 
Word of God. See it in the last verse of the chapter last 
named: "And they went out of the prison, and entered 
into the house of Lydia : and when they had seen the 
brethren, they comforted them, and departed." These breth- 
ren, they suppose, were the household of Lydia, and 



492 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

thousands looked on this as a wonderful discovery, and are 
fully satisfied with it, remote and feeble as it is. For the 
same kind of language is not used here as in the case of 
baptism, which was household or family, but here it is 
brethren — when they (Paul and Silas) had seen the breth- 
ren, and comforted them, etc. Who these brethren were, we 
are not informed. The only evidence we have to identify 
the persons v horn Paul and Silas met at the house of Lydia 
is, that Timotheus and Luke, the writer of the Acts, came 
with them to Philippi, and were all together on the Sabbath, 
when Paul preached to Lydia and those who were with her, 
at which time she invited them to her house, and they went; 
for Luke says, "she constrained us," from which we may 
fairly infer that they all made her house their home while in 
Philippi, and when Paul and Silas were released from prison, 
they went immediately to the house of Lydia again, where 
they saw those brethren, Timotheus and Luke, and perhaps 
others, and. comforted them by relating what God had done 
for them, and departed. 

The jailer and his were also baptized, and Paul speaks 
of having baptized the household of Stephanus, which 
goes to corroborate the same thing, and leads our minds to 
the conclusion that infants were baptized by the apostles, or 
why mention so repeatedly househeld baptism, and in such 
language as will admit of no other fair inference than that 
there were minors in those households yet under the control 
of the heads of those families which were baptized with their 
parents as truly as Abraham's sons were circumcised with 
him, and under his control and parental supervision, and 
were brought into the arms of Jesus, the divine head of the 
Church, in obedience to his command, when he said, Suffer 
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of 
such is the kingdom of God ? But if it could be fairly 
shown that there were no minors in any of those families 
mentioned in the New Testament, this could not and would 
not effect in the least degree the right of infants to baptism 
and membership in the visible Church and their interest in 
the covenant of grace, for what God has done in this respect 
has been well done, never, never to be changed in the least 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 493 

essential shade. God could as soon change and cease to be 
as to alter the covenant of grace, in which children are 
included, which was established by two immutable things, 
in which it was impossible for God to lie, viz., the promise 
and the oath of Jehovah, which Peter says is to you and to 
your children and all that are afar off, even as many as the 
Lord our God shall call. The promise being unto them as 
well as unto adults, the kingdom of heaven is theirs, and 
they have Jehovah's grant to come into it by baptism as 
certainly as adults, and all the winds and storms of this 
world cannot shake infant rights and privileges, for they are 
founded upon a rock — the same immutable rock, the rock 
upon which Christ told Peter he would build his Church 
and the gates of hell should not prevail against it. And we 
do maintain that all parents are most solemnly bound by all 
that is sacred and precious in the everlasting and immutable 
covenant and the stipulations of the covenant, to bring their 
infant seed to the Son of God, and dedicate them to him 
who has said, I will be thy God and the God of thy seed. 
And all God's called and sent ministers are bound from the 
same solemn considerations, as well as from their highly 
responsible station as ministers of Jesus Christ, to receive 
them into the kingdom in the name of the Lord. 

All heads of families should be worshipers of God and 
members of the Church of God, and as he has made it their 
duty and privilege, they should bring their children into the 
fold of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, and in full 
confidence commit them to the care of him who hath prom- 
ised to be their God, whose arms of unchangeable love will 
be thrown around them and whose tender care will be over 
them ; and all truly pious parents who give their little ones 
to God, and instruct them in the knowledge of divine things, 
and who pray with and for them at all times, and set a godly 
example before them, may expect sooner or later to witness 
the displays of God's power and goodness in the conviction 
and conversion of their children. For as no truth can be 
more consoling to the heart of the tender parent, there is 
none more fully demonstrated "'"ban that Jehovah's broad 
seal of approbation hath been placed upon the early dedica- 



494 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

tion and the wise and religious training of children; and 
instead of the absurd notion that infant baptism has cor- 
rupted the Church of the living God and had a thousand 
evil tendencies, it has been owned and blessed of the Head 
of the Church in all ages, who mercifully provided salvation 
for infants and ordained their rights and privileges. And 
although baptism gives no qualification for heaven, yet this 
outward sign and seal is to remind religious parents of what 
God has done and has promised to do for them and their 
children when they do with and for them as he has 
appointed. As stood the brilliant star in the East to guide 
the eastern sages to the babe of Bethlehem, so let the light 
and the life of all parents lead their offspring to the same 
blessed Saviour, whose arms are always ready to receive 
them. 

In what families has God revived his work mostly, and at 
tender ages converted the inmates? And from what families 
have the greatest number of the most talented, heavenly- 
minded, and useful ministers of the gospel been sent forth 
into the great harvest-field ? And from whose ranks have 
the opposers to infant rights and privileges recruited? 
Most manifestly from Pedo-Baptist families and the fruits of 
their labors, the truth of which is well attested by the expe- 
rience of many ages, the archives of the Church, and the 
annals of the world. In the beginning of the present 
century, when God poured his influence down and revived 
his work so wonderfully, children who had been early 
dedicated to God — children of the covenant were the sub- 
jects of that glorious work of the Lord; and according to a 
fair calculation, at the present day nine-tenths of all who are 
savingly converted to God are those who were baptized in 
infancy, and whose infant lips were taught by godly parents 
to lisp the name of Jesus and to speak of his salvation, and 
thousands of parents will rejoice in eternity that they gave 
their children to God in baptism and reared them in his fear. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 495 



LECTURE XXVI.— BAPTISM OF THE HOLY 

GHOST. 



The Bible being a revelation from God to the human race, 
including both Jews and Gentiles, should be properly appre- 
ciated and esteemed by all on account of its Author, the 
doctrines it reveals, and its blessed influence upon the world. 
It becomes the duty of all as well as their interest to read 
and study that holy book, in order that its precious doctrines 
may be understood and have their intended influence upon 
the hearts and lives of the family of man. That many have 
come to hasty conclusions with regard to religious truth, 
never having closely, honestly, and prayerfully studied the 
sacred oracles; and that others have been more tenacious of 
sectarian dogmas than zealous for the truth of Heaven, and 
have bewildered and misled thousands, must be manifest to 
to all in the least acquainted with the history of the world. 
All doctrines taught in the Bible are alike true, yet all are 
not alike essential — one truth may be above another, yet 
none should be set aside. All are profitable for doctrine, 
etc.,* and should be well understood and properly applied by 
the ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ to the hearts and 
consciences of their hearers. But let no one suppose because 
Christ hath instituted water baptism that regeneration is not 
necessary, .nor that both are alike essential to the salvation 
of the soul, or that they mean the same thing. Water 
baptism is right and should be attended to in obedience to 
the command of the great Head of the Church, but to teach 
that this will renovate and cleanse the soul from moral pollu- 
tion, and that the receiving of the Holy Ghost or spiritual 
baptism is not necessary and essential is void of truth. But 

* 2 Tim. in. 16. 



496 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

few Christians, well instructed in the doctrines of the Cross, 
will deny that Christ instituted water baptism to be perpetual 
in the Church, and to be administered in the name of the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, until this dispensation 
shall end. They believe it because the mouth of the Lord 
hath spoken it, saying, " Go ye therefore and teach all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost." In the same holy book it stands 
recorded, with equal clearness and emphasis, that ye shall be 
baptized with the Holy Ghost, for John said, "I indeed 
baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh 
after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to 
bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with 
fire." — Matt. in. 11. " He that sent me to baptize you with 
water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see 
the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he 
which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." — John i. 33. In 
these and many other passages of Scripture, the baptism of 
the Holy Ghost is fully taught, and Christ, the Lord from 
heaven, declared to be the administrator. Nothing can be 
more plain than that this baptism is spiritual, saving, and 
essential, and as far superior to water baptism as the sub- 
stance is to the shadow, or the Saviour was to John or any 
other man. The one was with water, the other with the 
Holy Ghost and with fire ; the one upon the body, the other 
in the soul; the one in obedience to the command of God, 
the other is never administered by man, but always by the 
Lord from heaven. And, moreover, men may fail to admin- 
ister water baptism, but Christ will not fail to administer the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost in accordance with his proposed 
plan. " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye 
shall be clean ; from all your filthiness, and from all your 
idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, 
and a new spirit will I put within you ; and I will take away 
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an 
heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and 
cause you to walk in my statutes," etc. — Ezek.xxxvi. 25-27. 
" So shall he sprinkle many nations." — Isa. lii. 15. " He 
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." Will it be said 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 497 

that these scriptures could riot allude to the same thing 
called baptism of the Holy Ghost, because sprinkle is the 
term used, and sprinkling is no baptism? To which it is 
replied that the Lord from heaven was evidently the sprink- 
ler, and a new heart, a new man, a regenerated man, with 
the Spirit of the Lord in him, the result of the sprinkling 
spoken of, and the word was such as the Lord saw proper to 
use when speaking of his own work, the agent employed in 
it, and the work to be accomplished. They were to be 
sprinkled from an evil conscience (Heb. x. 22), and to be 
made holy by the sprinkling. It will come in place here to 
prove that the Holy Ghost washes and sanctifies the unclean 
and makes them holy, and yet there is hut one sanctifier — 
the Holy Ghost and the one Lord Jesus, through w r hom and 
in whose name this saving work is ever done. 1 Cor. vi. II : 
"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye 
are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." This is truly regen- 
eration, and the agent is the Spirit of our God. Christ said 
to Peter, " If I wash thee not, then thou hast no part with 
me." — John xin. 8. With what would the Saviour wash a 
man's soul? Not with material water, but with the grace of 
God or the water of life; with clean water, savingly applied 
by the Holy Ghost, for unless a man is thus, washed he 
cannot, see the kingdom of God or enter there. See John 
in. 5 : "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, 
he cannot enter the kingdom of God." For the purpose of 
placing this matter in a light so clear as not to admit of any 
controversy, see Titus in. 5, 6 : "Not by works of righteous- 
ness which we have done, but according to his mercy he 
saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of 
the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through 
Jesus Christ our Saviour." This washing saves, it regen- 
erates and renews, and the mode of operation is a shedding 
upon through the Lord Jesus Christ. Washing is the true 
meaning of the word baptize, in whatever way the work 
may be performed. And now we shall attempt to prove that 
the same work of grace in the soul, said to be accomplished 
by sprinkling and washing, etc., is called by the name of 



498 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

baptism, the baptism of the Spirit or Holy Ghost, and that 
same Lord is the administrator of it; and although the 
attempt may be made to show that the oniy purpose to be 
accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Ghost was to confer 
miraculous gifts, we shall be able, with the Divine blessing, 
to redeem our promise, and prove that one great gift con- 
ferred by the baptism of the Holy Spirit is regeneration or 
holiness of heart and union with Christ and his people. See 
1 Cor. xii. 13: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into 
one bod}-, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be 
bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one 
Spirit." Here the apostle is speaking of the whole Chris- 
tian body or Church, whether Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, 
and affirms that they were united together by baptism, not 
water baptism, but the baptism of the Spirit, which dwelt hi 
them as an holy temple. Again, it is said that Christians 
are all baptized into Christ. Gal. in. 27-29: " For as many 
of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor 
free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in 
Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's 
seed, and heirs according to the promise." This baptism is 
administered to all the family of God and to every heir of 
heaven, and cannot be water baptism, though an immer- 
sionist were to be judge; for many are most evidently joined 
to this body who never received water baptism in any way, 
and will be found united with Christ in the great day when 
he shall come to make up his jewels. Then as all who 
belong to this body, whether Jews or Gentiles, are made 
such by baptism, it must be spiritual and saving baptism, 
administered by the Son of God, who alone baptizes with 
the Holy Ghost, and never faileth to wash all who have part 
with him, as before named. As the body is one and hath 
many members, and all these members have been baptized 
into this one body by one Spirit, we may say, in the language 
of the apostle to the Ephesians (iv. 4-6), " There is one 
body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of 
your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and 
Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 499 

all." Forasmuch, then, as the entire body is built up by the 
baptism of the Spirit of God, and that only, it must be the 
one true and saving baptism. Water baptism has its proper 
place — an outward sign, and nothing more than an outward 
sign of the one true and saving baptism. None are saved by 
mere water baptism; all are saved by being united to the 
body, and this is done by the Spirit, as we have proven. 
For further proof, see Eph. n. 19-22 : " Now therefore ye 
are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens 
with the saints, and of the household of God ; and are built 
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom all 
the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy 
temple in the Lord: in whom ye are also builded together 
for an habitation of God through the Spirit." All candid 
persons will see that the Apostle Paul not only understood 
the Church of God to be one household or family, though 
composed of different nations, but that they were builders 
upon the same foundation, and that by the same eternal 
Spirit, who claims this body, so united, for his own habita- 
tion or temple in which he dwells. Forasmuch, then, as this 
is the w r ork of the Spirit, and is regeneration, or the new 
birth of which Paul is speaking, which all must experience 
in order to membership in the spiritual body and union to 
Christ, the living head, we may safely affirm that this 
work of the Spirit is the baptism of the Spirit or Holy 
Ghost, for the same work is ascribed to this baptism. 
As none will dare to say that Paul contradicted himself 
or taught opposite doctrines when he says emphatically, 
" for by one Spirit have we all been baptized into one 
body;" and if he, under the infallible influence of the 
Spirit of God, calls that baptism which builds up the 
mystical body, w T ho but an iufidel can deny or doubt its 
correctness? And it will avail nothing for an objector 
to say that miraculous gifts followed this kind of bap- 
tism, for surely the entire body of Christians, Jews and 
Gentiles, male and female, bond and free, did not receive 
these gifts, though they received the gift of the Holy Ghost. 
Nor can it in truth be said that the baptism of the Holy 



500 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Ghost ceased with the apostles, for the very good reason that 
such notions would not only oppose the increase and growth 
of the body since those days, but, moreover, would be a very 
rash contradiction of St. Paul, and it will and must be seen 
that he takes in all and leaves out no part of the body or 
Church of Christ from the beginning to the end of time, 
and says the same thing of each individual member that he 
does of the whole united body; that all were baptized into 
it by one Spirit, and were all made to drink into one Spirit, 
were filled with one Spirit, even the Spirit of the Lord; 
for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of 
his. How appropriate, therefore, is the saying of Paul: 
"There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in 
one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism." 
Although some immersionists admit that there are some 
good people who have not been baptized (immersed, as they 
say), that will finally be saved, and at the same time deny 
the baptism of the Holy Ghost. — All such persons must, of 
course, be saved without either baptism, water baptism or 
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Here let me ask, how they 
can be saved without belonging to the body, and how can 
they belong to the body without either water baptism or the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost? How absurd! for according to 
their dogmas, they have not been baptized with water, and 
there is no baptism of the Holy Ghost in these clays, and of 
course they have not received that which is not. This is 
truly a dilemma with immersionists who deny spiritual 
baptism and contend that the one baptism by which all are 
baptized into one body is immersion in water. See, then, the 
conclusion which we must come to from this hypothesis, that 
if saved at all, all who are not immersed must be saved out 
of the body, having no connection whatever with it, and 
consequently not one with Christ, the head of the body ; or 
that all who are not immersed, of every country and every 
age, infants as we'll as adults, must be forever lost, not being 
united to Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. But when 
hard pressed, I have honest doubts whether any immersionist 
will attempt to maintain either the one or the other : first, 
that any can be saved who are not of the body of Christ, or, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 501 

second, that all will be damned, irrespective of age or sex, 
who are not immersed; and if so, our position is granted 
without further effort, and we are left in the quiet possession 
of all we contend for, which is the following : First, that 
none can be saved who belong not to the bod} 7 ; second, that 
all who belong to the body are baptized into it, as Paul says, 
by one Spirit, etc.; and, third, that this baptism is one and 
the same to all and in all, whether they have been dipped or 
sprinkled, whether adults or infants dying in infancy. 

If, however, the baptism of the Holy Ghost can be estab- 
lished from the immutable Word of God to be essential to 
salvation, then Campbellism lives no more, and the long and 
warm controversy with immersionists euds. For it must be 
manifest to all that there is, and of consequence must be, some 
analogy between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and that of 
water, in the mode of application, and that we are not under 
a misapprehension when we say that' immersionists seem to 
be aware of this fact. We beg leave to call the attention of 
the reader to their translations of the Bible and to their 
written sermons on baptism, in all of which they labor to 
prove an immersion into the Spirit wherever spiritual bap- 
tism occurs in the Bible, notwithstanding their notions of 
miraculous gifts, etc. In»every instance where the word 
baptize occurs, whether the reference is to water or the Holy 
Spirit, we are told that it should be immerse, immersed, etc. 
— immersed into the water, immersed into the Holy Ghost, 
immersed into the fire — and that nothing but immersion is 
baptism. But when we ask, Why this hard struggle to 
prove an immersion into the Holy Ghost? is it not manifest 
to all that, in part at least, it is for the purpose of gathering 
some support to their cause by showing the analogy between 
the two baptisms? And were it possible to do this and 
prove an immersion into the Holy Ghost, is it not manifest 
we should no more hear them deny this holy baptism ? But 
I ask again, How was this baptism given in the days of the 
apostles? Was it by immersion, or by pouring, or shedding 
forth? If by immersion, when and where was it, and who 
were immersed? Surely not the disciples on the day of 
Pentecost. They were baptized with the Holy Ghost, but they 



502 MEDIUM THEOLO„GY. 

were not immersed. The Spirit was poured out, not into the 
house, as some suppose, but into the disciples, and they were 
all filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts n. 2-4 : " And suddenly 
there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty 
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of lire, 
and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost," etc. Christ directed the disciples to wait 
at Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, saying, " John 
truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the 
Holy Ghost not many days hence." — Acts i. 5. Accordingly, 
on the day of Pentecost this promise was fulfilled, and the 
people were as evidently baptized with the Holy Ghost as 
that Christ uttered the words or John ever baptized with 
water. And what was the mode of operation? Was it a 
coming down, an outpouring, or an immersion? Certainly 
it was not an immersion. Peter says, "This is that which 
was spoken by the prophet Joel : And it shall come to pass, 
. . . saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." 
— Acts ii. 16, 17. The same apostle informs us that it was 
an outpouring, both on the day of Pentecost and also at the 
house of Cornelius, and that it was baptism at both places 
and a fulfilment of the words Of the Lord. See Acts x. 
44, 45, and xr. 15, 16 : " While Peter yet spake these words, 
the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word. 
And they of the circumcision which believed were aston- 
ished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the 
Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost." 
" And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on 
them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the 
word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized 
with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost." 
In all this we can see nothing that bears the remotest 
resemblance to immersion, and yet we are compelled to 
believe that the people spoken of were baptized with the 
Holy Ghost, and that it was a falling upon or pouring out,, 
or cantradict God and deny the truth of his Word. If one 
single passage of scripture could be found in all the Bible to 
favor in the least the idea that any one was ever over- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 503 

whelmed or immersed in the Spirit, it might show some 
coloring of reason why immersionists believe and teach the 
doctrine, and it might in part save their new translation 
from utter contempt and their cause from ruin. But when it 
is well known by all who have read the Bible with care and 
attention, that no such passage exists in the holy book; and 
yet they believe and teach an immersion into the Holy 
Ghost, and will take hold of God's holy book and so trans- 
late its sacred pages as to make it speak a language which it 
never did speak, and what is still worse, a sentiment in 
direct opposition to reason, revelation, and the whole sense 
of the Bible. Is it not strange and unaccountable in a 
Christian people? And is it not true that the cause must be 
bad and the sentiment false and rotten which requires such 
desperate means to defend it? But we are told that the 
translation must and will come. Well, if it must and will 
come, we would only say that the immutable and infallible 
Spirit is already here, as well as the book of his own diction, 
and no marvel if their immersion into the Holy Ghost should 
have to kick against the pricks and meet a just doom; for 
we feel warranted in believing that he who speaks so repeat- 
edly of outpourings, etc., and never of clippings into the 
Spirit, will not acknowledge the authorship of such dogmas. 
The only proof on which the advocates of this opinion rely 
with confidence is that the word baptize means alwa} 7 s to 
immerse, and it must be so, and it is so, thus begging the 
question in the absence of all truth and proof; and when 
called upon for the law and the testimony, we are referred to 
the transaction on the memorable day of Pentecost as an 
instance of immersion into the Holy Ghost, and many of 
their learned ones teach that the Spirit tilled the house and 
that the disciples were immersed in him, and thousands 
believe it without ever reading for themselves, when a bare 
reference to the text would show that it was the sound which 
filled the house and not the Holy Ghost. But suppose the 
Holy Spirit had filled the house by being poured out, would an 
immersionist receive this for baptism ? If so, why not receive 
the like in the case of water baptism ? But not so. Should a 
Pedo-Baptist pour water upon a subject until he were over- 



504 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

whelmed and soaked thoroughly, no rigid advocate for 
immersion would admit or receive it for good baptism; nor 
would it be received if done by one of their own faith and 
order, and the reason is very obvious — the objection is to the 
mode in which the thing is done. The subject was well 
soaked but the action was by pouring instead of plunging, 
yet the same people would prove an immersion into the 
Spirit by pouring if they could. If, on the other hand, it 
should be admitted that the baptism is good and valid, 
provided the subject is well soaked (though by pouring), 
then we sprinklers, as we are sometimes called, are very 
good immersionists, provided we pour on a sufficient quan- 
tity. The key being thus given up, the controversy ends. 

As we have stated and endeavored to prove that even 
immersionists believe that there is some analogy between 
the two baptisms, which is clearly demonstrated by their 
arguments in favor of immersion into the Spirit on the day 
of Pentecost, it may not be amiss at this time to call the 
reader's attention briefly to this subject; for all will admit 
that if spiritual baptism was by immersion, then water 
baptism should be given in the same way, but, on the con- 
trary, if spiritual baptism was always administered by the 
Son of God by pouring, shedding, etc., then water baptism 
should be given in the same mode. And the one is an 
expressive emblem of the other, and as the Lord pours out 
the Spirit to enlighten, to correct, to regenerate, and to 
sanctify the soul, so should the outward sign (water baptism) 
be poured out in baptism, for both are called by the same 
name, baptism. John speaks of water baptism and the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost, and so does Christ. The one 
was baptism and so was the other, the former upon the body 
and the latter in the soul, with a sanctifying power. And 
forasmuch as God himself calls that baptism which was 
given by pouring, we have his testimony to prove that pour- 
ing is baptism. And so do all the inspired writers who 
speak of this holy baptism testify that he (the Holy Ghost) 
was poured, or shed, or fell upon the people. Why, then, 
will any object and say that pouring cannot be right in the 
administration of water baptism, and that it is no baptism, 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 505 

when we have God's word to prove it in the case of sancti- 
fying baptism, and also the action of the Holy Spirit on the 
day of Pentecost? But was this spiritual baptism to cease 
with the apostles and their immediate successors? jSTot at 
all, for Peter says that God promised to pour out his Spirit 
upon all flesh; and Christ, speaking of the same divine 
agent and his influence,' says, " It is expedient for you that I 
go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come 
unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And 
when he is come he will reprove the world of sin, of right- 
eousness, and of judgment." — John xvi. 7, 8. These words 
prove that all nations were to be blessed with the divine out- 
pouring of the Spirit, Comforter, or Holy Ghost — for he is 
called by these different names (John xiv. 26) — to convince 
of sin, etc., and these on condition of faith in Christ to 
baptize them into the body, as we have before proven. It 
will only be necessary to remark, that the same which God 
fulfilled on the day of Pentecost was promised to all flesh 
quoted from Joel by Peter, and that was the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost and at the house of 
Cornelius. If so, forasmuch as all were included in the 
promise, all must receive it, and when they receive it, it will 
be as much the baptism of the Holy Ghost as at the house 
of Cornelius or on the day of Pentecost. Here we repeat 
that when Peter witnessed the descent of the Holy Ghost 
upon the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius, he declared that 
it was like that which he saw in the beginning, or that the 
Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning, alluding 
no doubt to the Pentecost. And what did all this bring to 
his recollection? Says Peter, "Then remembered I the 
word of the Lord, how that he said, John truly baptized 
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost 
not many days hence." Now, if Peter had witnessed an 
immersion into water and into the Holy Ghost on the day 
of Pentecost, how could he say that it was like the pouring 
which he saw at the house of Cornelius? There seems to 
to have been no matter of astonishment in what Peter 
and bis brethren witnessed on that occasion, except those 
persons who were baptized with the Holy Ghost by its 
33 



506 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

falling upon them were Gentiles. God, who is no respecter 
of persons, included all flesh or nations and people in the 
gospel plan, and made promise to all and conferred upon 
all like blessings, on the same gospel condition. Though he 
may not bestow upon all regenerated persons the power of 
working miracles, still the prime blessing is the same; for 
although the people were as much baptized with the Spirit 
at the house of Cornelius as at Jerusalem on the day of 
Pentecost (it was in like manner), yet we are not informed that 
they wrought miracles, though they were thus baptized ; and 
it is God's plan of operation and of working a change in the 
human soul, and he has seen proper to call it by the name 
of baptism — baptism of the Holy Ghost. Let no one reply 
against God or find fault, but submit as did Peter when he 
uttered the following words : "Forasmuch then as God gave 
them the like gift, as he did unto us who believed on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I could withstand God ? " 
Acts xi. 17. Again, " Let God be true, but every man a 
liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy 
sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged." — 
Rom. in. 4. Nothing can be more plain than that the Holy 
Ghost is the agent or divine person who begins and com- 
pletes the work of sactification in all and every person who 
enters the blessed world of happiness. It is equally true 
that he alone bestowed all the gifts which have been or ever 
will be enjoyed by the Church, and that he first prepares the 
heart by regeneration or the washing of regeneration and 
renewing of the Holy Ghost, for the reception and proper 
use of those miraculous gifts. One may be baptized with 
the Holy Ghost and receive those gifts immediately or at 
some future time. Again, he who has some of the gifts may 
at a futre time receive others in addition, as was the case on 
the day of Pentecost, in the gift of tongues, etc. ; or he may 
be baptized with the Holy Ghost, and be filled with him and 
praise and magnify God, but never work miracles. " Now 
there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there 
are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And 
there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God 
which worketh in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 507 

is given to every man to profit withal." — 1 Cor. xn. 4-7. 
The apostle, after enumerating many gifts of the Spirit, 
says, " For as the body is one, and hath many members, and 
all the members of that one body, being many, are one 
body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all bap- 
tized into one body, whether we be Jew3 or Gentiles, 
whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to 
drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but 
many." — 1 Cor. xn. 12-14. See the chapter throughout. 

Having shown already that none can belong to this body 
but b}^ baptism of the Holy Spirit, we come to the conclusion 
that it will be continued in the Church to the end of the 
world, or until Christ, whose prerogative alone it is to 
baptize with the Holy Ghost, shall have finished his media- 
torial work and delivered up the kingdom to God, even the 
Father; then will it cease, and not until then. Christians 
are said to be in Christ, and he in them. Thus life is hid 
with him in God. But before they can be in Christ the old 
man must die or be destroyed. This destruction or death 
of the old man, or body of sin, is accomplished through the 
sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, and 
by the same power which raised up Christ from the dead. 
That power is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the baptism of 
the Holy Ghost being administered to sinners when penitent, 
sin dies, and the soul is raised into newness of life in Christ 
Jesus; and now he is dead and his life is hid with Christ in 
God. The baptism of the one Spirit killed sin and resur- 
rected the soul and joined it to the living head and made it 
a member of the living body. See Col. in. 1-3 : " If ye 
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, 
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your 
affections on things above, not on thiugs on the earth. For 
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." See 
also Col. ir. 12: "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also 
ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of 
God, who hath raised him from the dead." All attentive 
Bible-readers will readily perceive that this burying with 
Christ in baptism, and raising again through the faith of the 
operation of God, who raised Christ from the dead, is the 



508 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

baptism of the Spirit, which operates in the soul by faith in 
the Son of God, and the burying in Christ and his atone- 
ment and not in water. And the hiding and burying are the 
same, or mean the same thing. Therefore the Christian is 
buried or hid with Christ in God. He is in Christ and Christ 
in God and God in him. Truly, as Paul says, he is dead and his 
life is hid with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is our 
life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 
Here, observe, Christ is the Christian's life. It is a rising- 
life and the very life by which the Christian rises into new- 
ness of life in Christ Jesus. The same apostle, when speak- 
ing of the same thing in his epistle to the Romans, says, 
" How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? 
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus 
Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are 
buried with him by baptism into death : that like as Christ 
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, 
even so we also should walk in newness of life." — Rom. vi. 
2-4. Here it will be seen that Paul again makes use of the 
word baptism while speaking of regeneration and a new 
creation in Christ. Then see, first, the power that operates 
in this baptism; second, it destroys the old man or kills sin 
in the soul; third, it is through the merits of the death and 
resurrection of Christ that sin is destroyed and dies, no more 
to rise and have dominion over the soul, and as death hath 
no more dominion over Christ, who died for us, even so 
when by the merits of his death we die unto sin, it is to 
have no more dominion over us; fourth, we have been in the 
likeness of his death and shall also be in the likeness of his 
resurrection, which is a moral likeness and not a natural, 
for the death is in the soul and so is the resurrection ; and 
the soul thus raised into newness of life bears the impress 
and image of the Son of God, all of which is accomplished in 
the soul and for the soul by the power that raised Christ from 
the dead, and not by water baptism or the power of man's 
arm, which sometimes puts the subject down dead, and raises 
him up as dead and as destitute of the life and image of tue 
Son of God as before. But in the other case, where the soul 
is baptized with the powers that raised up Christ from the 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 509 

dead the work is done with infallible certainty. Sin dies 
and, as before said, the soul is raised in the likeness of the 
Lord; for if we have been planted together in the likeness 
of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resur- 
rection, knowing this that our old man is crucified with him 
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we 
should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. 
(See Rom. vi. 5-7.) That we are correct in what we have 
said, and have not mistaken the meaning of Paul in this 
matter or perverted God's word — know and understand that 
he is still speaking of the same work of grace in the soul, in 
the sixth verse, when he called it a crucifixion with — but 
what was crucified? Evidently the old man, the corrupt 
man, that the body of sin might be destroyed with the affec- 
tions and lusts, and that the new man might live in Christ 
and with Christ, and no more serve sin but live unto God. 
For, in the fifth and last place, it will be seen that this 
baptism joins the spiritual man to Christ the living head, 
who is the Lord from heaven, and not only the head but the 
great body of believers to the general assembly and Church 
of the first-born, which are written in heaven and to God 
the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just men made 
perfect. Thpre is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are 
called, and one hope of your calling: one Lord, one faith, 
one baptism ; for by one Spirit have we all been baptized 
into one body; therefore we are one in Christ Jesus. Water 
baptism can never make us one in Christ Jesus, but the bap- 
tism of the one Spirit can and does, as we have more than 
once proved from 1 Cor. xn. 13, and many other passages of. 
God's Word. 

Water baptism can never unite the hearts of professors 
together so as to make them love as Christians and brethren. 
At least it has not so happened, for they have been widely 
separated even at the Christian feast, but the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost can and always does. Permit me, then, to pray 
for this blessing, and that he who is as a refiner's fire and as 
fuller's soap, and sitteth as a refiner and purifier of silver, 
and whose prerogative it is to baptize with the Holy Ghost, 
may baptize our souls with that purifying baptism and make 



510 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

us love as brethren, for love fulfils the law, and without 
charity we are nothing. No fact can be more manifest than 
that Paul's allusion in the passage so frequently brought 
before you in the preceding, was to spiritual baptism, and 
not a dipping into water. The persons or characters spoken 
of were baptized, not into water but into death, the result 
of which was a resurrection into life. Paul includes himself 
in the number thus baptized and raised. Surely, then, if his 
allusion was to water baptism and the mode of dipping and 
raising out of the water, then verily Paul was so dipped and 
raised in a literal sense at or before the time he uttered the 
words under consideration (see the words as quoted), which 
was neither true of himself nor of those to whom he wrote, 
for none of them were literally dead, though all declared to 
be dead. It must be understood in a spiritual sense, both of 
the baptism and the crucifixion. But let us examine whether 
Paul was ever plunged into and raised up out of the water 
when he was baptized, for we conclude that he received the 
ordinance but once. Ananias, it appears, baptized him when 
in the city of Damascus, and in the house of one Judas, and 
some say by immersion, which, as the place (a house), would 
not be impossible, but in view of the attitude of his body, it 
does appear most unreasonable, as he was not only in a 
house, but most evidently standing up at the time the minis- 
ter baptized him; and whoever witnessed such a thing or 
anything like it, as a man being immersed in a house whilst 
standing on his feet? There is nothing, perhaps, recorded 
in the New Testament relating to baptism, which is better 
calculated to settle the dispute as to the mode of baptism 
than the facts of the case under consideration ; for Paul was 
manifestly not dipped, but the water was applied to his person 
in some way adapted to the place where, aud the attitude of 
his body when baptized, which was by sprinkling or by pour- 
ing. If, however, I am incorrect in this opinion, I am, never- 
theless, sure it cannot be wrong to be led and guided by the 
Word of God, and to these conclusions the Bible manifestly 
must lead the candid and unprejudiced mind. See the account 
given of Paul's baptism (Acts ix. 17, 18): "And Ananias 
went his way and entered into the house," etc., " and imme- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 511 

diately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales, and he 
received sight forthwith and rose and was baptized." He 
arose up, but went not out; he was baptized, but not 
immersed. Forasmuch, then, as Paul was not immersed it 
cannot, by any fair logic, be supposed that he taught the 
doctrine, either in his epistle to the Romans, the Collos- 
sians, or anywhere else. For, indeed, he was no stickler for 
water baptism. Though he was one of the chief apostles, 
yet his zeal for water baptism was nothing in comparison 
with that of some men in these later days for immersion. 
But at the same time they manifest such zeal for water, the 
fact is not concealed that they have little or none for the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost, and even deny that such a divine 
influence exists at this day. But Paul, while he said that 
the Lord had not sent him to baptize but to preach the 
gospel, manifested great zeal in teaching the doctrine of 
spiritual baptism, and that he himself and all others who 
were in Christ had received it, and all must receive it to 
belong to the spiritual body or family of God. John the 
Baptist taught it, Christ the Lord taught it, Ezekiel and 
Isaiah taught it, and likewise John and Peter; and the 
united testimony of all is that it is essential to salvation, and 
that Christ is the administrator of this holy baptism or 
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost ; 
as he said to Peter, " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part 
with me." In the close it will be seen that " by grace are ye 
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the 
gift of God" (Eph. ii. 8); and in 1 John i. 7: "The blood 
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." This 
blood which cleanseth us from all sin is called the blood of 
sprinkling. (See Heb. xn. 24.) And in Heb. x. 22, the 
mode of application to the heart is pointedly declared to be by 
sprinkling. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
science, no Christian will deny but what this is regeneration — 
the conscience purged and cleansed from all sin, and the soul 
saved by grace, as quoted above, and all this by sprinkling, 
as the Word of God says. This all agrees with what is said 
in Ezekiel: -'Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, 
and ye shall be clean," etc. ; " a new heart will I also give 






512 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

you, and a new spirit will I put within you." This is salva- 
tion by grace, and the mode is sprinkling. Christ, no doubt, 
alluded to this when he said to Nicodemus, " Except a man 
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
kingdom of God;" the water of life to cleanse and the 
Spirit to apply it with power. Then compare Titus in. 5, 
with the above : " Not by works of righteousness which we 
have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the 
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, 
which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our 
Saviour." Here is salvation by washing with the water of 
life, applied by the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ, and 
that by being shed. Here note the term shed is often used 
with regard to the Holy Ghost. If this is plain to the 
reader, he will remember that Christ was to sprinkle many 
nations with clean water to cleanse them. The same Lord 
was to baptize with the Holy Ghost, and the mode of this 
baptism was to pour out or shed upon, and the washing of 
regeneration was shed upon ; and Christ is the administrator 
of all these, and they all mean the same thing; and if one 
is the work of regeneration, they all are, and of course the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost must be, and the action is an 
action upon or into the soul. And although different terms 
are used to signify the same thing (a new heart, born again), 
such as baptize, wash, sprinkle, and crucify, etc., he who 
used them had a right so to do ; and he knew the meaning 
of the word baptize, and that it means to wash, to purify, to 
cleanse, at least; and to baptize with the Holy Ghost is to 
impart the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and when Christ 
baptizes a soul with the Holy Ghost he washes that soul 
that it may have part with him in the first resurrection. On 
such the second death hath no power. This is the one 
saving bsptism which stands connected with the one Lord 
and one faith, and all in heaven who have any part and 
connection with him and the family (and all have), have 
received it; and all on earth who are in Christ, have 
received it, and all who would enter into heaven must 
receive it and be baptized into the body, or they will be 
found on the sand in the day of the Lord Jesus, when 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 513 

the great rock shall grind the wicked and the last fire burn 
the world. 

I now leave the reader to compare the passages of Script- 
ure quoted, and see if there is not a very striking coinci- 
dence throughout ; and I wish, moreover, that he may see 
the true reason why so many have made water baptism 
essential to salvation, and put water in the place of the 
blood of Christ. It is because they have not distinguished 
between the water of life and the natural element, and 
seeing that there is an essential baptism spoken of in the 
Bible, and denying the baptism of the Holy Ghost, they of 
course must make water baptism that one saving and essen- 
tial baptism; and while they hold the sign, deny the thing 
signified. Like a man using the bread and wine in the 
sacrament of the Supper, significant of the body and blood 
of Christ, while he denies like an infidel the Lord who 
suffered and died. To deny, therefore, the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost is to deny the one true baptism altogether, and 
only cleave to its shadow; like a Jew who holds to outward 
circumcision in the flesh, but denies that of the heart made 
without hands. 






514 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



LECTURE XXVII. — ON CHRISTIAN COM- 
MUNION. 



The sacrament of the Supper was instituted by the Lord 
Jesus Christ before he suffered for the sins of the world. 
The time of its appointment, with surrounding circum- 
stances, made the hour solemn and truly interesting to all 
present. 

The Master was shortly to suffer and his little flock to be 
scattered. In the midst of this lovely little band the Saviour 
took bread and blessed it, and blessed God, and said, Take, 
eat, this is my body; and he took the cup and gave thanks, 
and gave it to them, saying, drink ye all of it, for this is my 
blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the 
remission of your sins. How sweet and yet how solemn 
were these words of the Son of God, when accompanied 
with the lively emblems of his body and blood, soon to be 
offered for the life of the world. In. the sufferings and death 
of our Lord Jesus was manifested the wonderful love of God 
towards sinners, calculated at once to move and melt the 
most obdurate of our race; to excite in them love to the 
Saviour and to each other, and to fully exhibit before them 
the sacred and everlasting obligations under which all 
redeemed souls are brought forever to remember, adore 
and love him who gave himself for them and redeemed them 
from the curse of the law. The children of God, in attend- 
ing to this solemn sacrament oft, are often reminded of 
God's love to them and the great price of their pardon, and 
at the same time have a fair opportunity of testifying their 
love to the Lord and his people ; and nothing can be more 
certain than that the great Head of the Church designed 
these sentiments and feelings to live and reign in the hearts 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 515 

of his people, and as a grand means in its accomplishment, 
he designed the perpetuity of this sacred Supper in the 
Church through all time, even to the time of the second 
coming of the Son of God. 

I. This holy sacrament is commemorative of the sufferings, 
death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and second coming of the 
Saviour. " This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance 
of me. For as oft as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, 
ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." — 1 Cor. xi. 25, 26. 
The command is to do it in remembrance of me. This is a 
most solemn act of worship paid to the Lord Jesus Christ 
by the whole Church. He is worshiped as God — the living 
and true God. All are to remember him who redeemed 
them with his own precious blood, and to show forth his 
death or all that he did and suffered for the human race in 
the work of redemption; forasmuch as it is one undivided 
great atonement, one wise and wonderful plan, one system 
of truth. Hence, to show the Lord's death often, is to show 
and prove to the world the truth of the Bible with all its 
precious doctrines, for they all concentrate in Christ, and are 
in him yea and amen. Therefore, this commemorative ordi- 
nance is a standing monument in the Church of God, and 
will continue so to be until Christ shall come the second time 
without sin unto salvation. It stands to show the love of 
God to all and through all time, and ours to him and his 
people, as well as our dependence upon Christ and his 
precious blood to wash us from our sins and to prepare us 
for the glorious appearing of the Saviour and an abundant 
entrance into the happiness of heaven. This sacrament, 
and not water baptism, is commemorative of the sufferings, 
death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and is significant 
and very expressive of what Christ did and suffered for us as 
our great High Priest. Protestant Christians recognize two, 
and but two sacraments, each having its uses and appropriate 
place in the Church of God — water baptism and the sacred 
supper, both of w T hich are of divine appointment, and to be 
religiously observed by the servants of the most high God. 
But while Christians obey, worship, and honor God in 
strictly attending to these sacraments, th.ey should know 



516 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

well that God never intended that either the one or the 
other should be idolized and worshiped, or deemed essential 
to the salvation of the soul. And who but an idolatrous 
Roman Catholic would ever think of worshiping either 
water baptism or the sacred Supper? All enlightened 
Christians might know that neither the Supper nor water 
baptism can be essential or saving, nor will any one ever be 
admitted into heaven through and by the influence of any 
outward ordinance, however significant, nor will God ever 
exclude any one from the kingdom of heaven for the want 
of either or both of these sacraments, for neither of them is 
essential grace or the efficacious blood of Christ, but means 
of grace at most, and outward signs of saving grace, yet not 
inseparably connected with it. Therefore, grace may be 
and often is savingly applied without either the one or the 
other. And on the other hand, it must be manifest that 
multitudes are baptized and eat of the bread and drink of 
the wine whom the Lord will not own in the great day. 
While Roman Catholics, therefore, have egregiously erred, 
on the one hand, in making an idol of the bread and 
wine in the Supper, multitudes have equally erred, on the 
other, in idolizing water baptism; for who does not know 
that many in these latter days teach that except ye be bap- 
tized, or immersed, ye cannot be saved or enter the kingdom 
of heaven ? That these are both gross, bewildering, and 
soul-damning heresies cannot be denied or doubted by any 
one who admits the truth of God's Word, which teaches 
that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, and that bv 
grace ye are saved. The scriptural doctrine relative to water 
baptism teaches a religious observance of that ordinance, 
but proves most conclusively that it is nothing more than 
an outward sign of spiritual baptism, and represents, by 
being poured on the subject, the outpouring .of the Holy 
Spirit in spiritual baptism, which alone is essential baptism. 
Again, the Bible teaches that the bread and wine in the 
sacred Supper are material, outward, significant signs of the 
body and blood of the Lord Jesus, designed to assist believ- 
ers ill receiving from God the life-giving body and the soul- 
cleansing and saving blood of the Lord from heaven. In 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 517 

this commemorative ordinance both the bread and wine are 
to be given and received, as both were given by the Master. 
Both are essential to the very existence of the sacrament, 
and ministers cannot withhold either the bread or the wine 
without manifest disobedience and contempt of Christ, and 
communicants do not commune at all who do not receive 
both, nor can any one be an acceptable guest of the Lord's 
table who does not in his heart fellowship all the famliy of the 
Lord, who have been renewed by divine grace, and have, fel- 
lowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ; for we 
feel warranted in saying that God will not pardon and renew 
any one whom he would not receive and make welcome at 
his table, and if he receives them we are bound to do so, for 
by rejecting those whom the Lord receives we reject Christ, 
and he who rejects Christ and his children cannot be worthy 
himself. The soul that receives Christ must receive him 
fully and not in part, but with all his soul, and anything 
short of this is no reception, but manifestly a rejection of 
the Saviour. In like manner, he who does not receive and 
fellowship all the Lord's 'dear children, of whatever name 
they may be, most evidently rejects all, for all go together, 
and he never does and never can worthily commune at the 
table of the Lord. Close communion must, therefore, 
amount to no communion at all, but a rejection of the holy 
sacrament with all its benefits, including the Master and his 
family, for which no good apology can be offered, forasmuch 
as no one will be so presumptuous as to suppose that God 
would pardon or bless any one holding any doctrines that 
ought of right to exclude him from heaven or a place at his 
table on earth. Let the fact, therefore, be established that 
God has received and communes with him or them, andt he 
matter is settled that no one has any right to reject, and 
those who do, reject the ordinance and him who instituted it. 

II. We shall next lay down the terms of Christian com- 
munion arid fellowship. 

1. Christ, who instituted this sacrament, laid down such 
terms of Christian fellowship as pleased him, which he alone 
had the right to do, and no one has the right of altering 
what he has done. His terms of communion and Christian 






518 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

fellowship are the same with the terms or condition ot justi- 
eation, regeneration, and eternal life, which is faith in the 
Lord Jesus. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved." — Acts xvi. 31. " God so loved the world, 
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." — John 
in. 16. If God will sanctify and save such as believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and receive them into heaven and. grant 
them full privileges into the kingdom of glory, hereby he 
would receive them to full privileges into his Church on 
earth. We feel fully borne out by the Word of God in 
saying that none will be admitted into heaven who are 
unholy and unfit for the Church and a place at the Lord's 
table on earth. (We speak of adults.) We know that the 
Lord will do right. He will save believers whom he hath 
renewed and filled with the Holy Ghost. They are his chil- 
dren, and God is their Father; he loves them and will not 
withhold any good thing from them. All things are theirs, 
and they are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Things in 
heaven are theirs, and things on earth ; the kingdom above 
and the kingdom below; "all things are your's; whether 
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, 
or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye 
are Christ's." — 1 Cor. in. 21-23. And again (2 Cor. 
vi. 18), "And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall 
be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almigoty." 
All such are welcome at their Father's table. It is his good 
pleasure to give them the kingdom. "Blessed are the poor 
in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of heaven." — Matt. v. 3. 
God knows who have a right to all the privileges of his 
house, and well does he know what the proper qualifications 
are, and those whom he hath qualified and brought up to the 
standard of moral rectitude, when faith can discern the 
Lord's body and blood. But poor little man, short-sighted 
and imperfect man, would present his imperfect standard for 
the purpose of measuring those whom the Lord hath meas- 
ured, and would claim the right of dividing the household 
of faith, and cutting off all those who do not subscribe to 
his or their dogmas; and yet they will admit that some of 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 519 

those whom they reject are good people — believers in Christ 
and have the spirit of the Lord Jesus, and that God would 
admit them into heaven, but allege that they are disorderly, 
and consequently have no right to the sacred Supper. We 
ask, by what rule do they judge of disorder? Surely not 
by the measure or standard of Christ, for by his standard 
they are children of God, and if children, then heirs of God 
and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, accord- 
ing to all such standards, these heirs of God and joint heirs 
with Christ are rejected, and Christ with them, unless the 
disorder alluded to is such as to exclude them from Christ 
and heaven, which cannot be true, or God would uot have 
pardoned and made them sons and heirs of heaven. The 
plain truth is that God has but one standard, and he brings 
his children up to it, and makes them one in Christ — one 
united, lovely family, cemented and bound together with celes- 
tial ligaments; Christ the head and they the body, and all 
members one of another. But here we see another standard, 
evidently of human invention, by which the Lord's children 
must be measured and tried before they can be allowed the 
privileges which Heaven has granted them and for which he 
has qualified them. Its tendency is to make war upon the 
family of the Lord, and to divide that which God hath 
joined together. The standard is wrong; it comes in 
contact with the high standard of Heaven ; it disturbs the 
peace and the unity of the Church of the living God, 
alienates the affections of Christians, and hinders the charity 
of the Bible, the spread of the gospel, the millennial glory; 
causes division and strife ; it gives to opposers, Romanists and 
infidels, a most fearful weapon ; it is a dark spot in the feasts 
of Christian charity; and, finally, it wounds Christ in the 
house of his friends, and causes him to bleed from ten thou- 
sand pores ; and when tried by the standard of the Lord will 
be found wanting, tekel having been long since written against 
it by the finger of the living God. God himelf being judge, the 
standard of the Christian communion in the Church below 
cannot be higher than that of the communion of saints in 
heaven or differ from it. And inasmuch as faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, a new heart, love to God, and love to the family 



520 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of God, constitute the qualifications for the communion of 
saints in heaven, the same is a full and complete qualification 
for the communion of the saints on earth. But we are 
sometimes told that water baptism is an essential qualifica- 
tion for the Lord's table, and that no one has any right to 
the sacred supper who has not been baptized or immersed. 
Then let it be observed that while we believe it to be right 
and proper for all to be baptized, which is by pouring, and 
fitly represents the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we do not 
believe that water baptism is an essential qualification for 
either the communion of the saints in the Church triumph- 
ant or militant, or that water baptism imparts any soul- 
cleansing or sanctifying power to any one, nor yet that any 
soul ever was or ever will be saved by it or be damned for 
the want of it; much less that a very doubtful mode of 
baptism (dipping) has so much power and is so essential as 
to impart essential qualifications for admission into glory or 
to the Lord's table on earth. For the Bible says that the 
blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, and a soul cleansed 
from all sin is fit for both worlds The most, then, that can 
be said in this place of water baptism is, not that it makes a 
bad man a good man, or a sinner a saint, nor yet that it 
brings any person into or makes him a spiritual member of the 
mystical body of Christ, but is an outward sign of saving 
grace, and by it visible members of the Church are recog- 
nized, acknowledged, and known. Baptism should be left 
in the place where the Lord put it, and not taken by man's 
hands and put in the place of Christ and his blood, as is 
manifestly true of all who make it an essential thing for the 
sacred Supper or heaven above. We, however, believe and 
practice water baptism in that way which we believe to be 
true, scriptural, and right, both as to the mode and design of 
it. Our consciences are satisfied and clear in the sight of 
the Omniscient One, and although we are sometimes told 
that ours is no baptism and that we have no right to the 
Lord's table, we only claim for ourselves what we think the 
Lord has granted us and what we cheerfully grant to others, 
viz., the right of examining ourselves and of being our own 
judges, both as to the essential qualifications of soul and 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 521 

also the proper mode of baptism, for to our own Master we 
must stand or fall, and the Master being pleased, who has 
any right to find fault or be displeased? If Christians^ how- 
ever, claim the right of judging each other, they mistake 
their appropiate work, and assume that which belongs to the 
Master and not the servant. In all such cases it would be 
difficult to determine who has the right to sit as judge and 
decide -the fate of others. For ourselves we claim no such 
right, but cheerfully submit to the high claims of our Master 
to say who is worthy and whom he will receive and com- 
mune with. The advocates of close communion, unwilling 
to bear the heavy burden of dividing the fold of Christ, 
plead not guilty, and alledge that Pedo-Baptists have reared 
the walls of division and separation, and that they ought 
and can pull them down, and that they (the Baptists) are in 
favor of free communion. I ask, On what grounds are they 
in favor of free communion? Are they willing to make part of 
the sacrifice? No ! Will they suffer Pedo-Baptists to commune 
with them unless they will come and be immersed, dispense 
with infant baptism, and then join the Baptist Church? No, 
they will not. But this, they tell us, Pedo-Baptists can easily 
do if they will, for they all acknowledge that the Baptists 
are right and in the right way. Is it so that Pedo-Baptists 
believe that Baptists are right, in that they reject infant bap- 
tism, in their close communion, or in their views with regard 
to the mode of water baptism, or the baptism of the Holv 
Ghost? Surely this cannot be so. If it is, what base hypo- 
crites Pedo-Baptists must be! Well do we know of one (and 
he speaks the mind of all) who does not acknowledge the right 
of any one to reject infants, to make terms of communion, 
to deny the baptism of the Holy Ghost, nor that dipping the 
subject into water is the scriptural mode of baptism. In 
truth, Pedo-Baptists do not acknowledge anyone to be right 
unless his heart has been renewed by the Holy Ghost, and 
his soul is honest in the sight of God, and he united to 
Christ the living head, and made a child of God. Then is 
he entitled to the sacred Supper in common with other good 
people; and walls and bars are taken out of the way, not 
by Baptists or Pedo-Baptists, but by the Lord; and God has 
M 



522 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

authorized no one to raise them again. Pedo-Baptists are 
willing for God's terms to be the terms of free communion 
in all time and in all Churches, and whilst they honestly 
believe that they are right in minor matters as well as in 
essential doctrines, they do not set themselves up as judges 
and lord it over the consciences of their brethren who differ 
from them as to modes and forms; but in the exercise of 
Christian charity, they allow them to think for themselves, 
and to examine themselves in heart, life, baptism, etc., and 
so to eat the bread and drink of the cup. But let it not be 
said that Pedo-Baptists have raised walls, when they are 
willing to meet Baptists, as such, at the Lord's table. But 
Baptists are not willing to meet Pedo-Baptists unless they 
come to Baptist terms : cease to be Pedo-Baptists, sacrifice 
their sacred rights, submit, contrary to their honest senti- 
ments, to be immersed, and then join the Baptist Church. 

To conclude this part of the subject: whatever walls may 
be in the way to hinder free communion we leave it with an 
impartial, enlightened Christian community to say who has 
done this great wickedness in separating the Lord's people, 
whom he hath joined together in one mind and one Spirit; 
all holding the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity, 
viz., the being of God, the doctrine of the Trinity, the 
essential divinity of Christ, the original rectitude of man, 
the fall of man, the atonement of Christ, the influence of the 
Holy Spirit in the Lord Jesus, justification by faith, regen- 
eration by the power of the Spirit, a life of holiness, the 
resurrection from the dead, the general judgment, and future 
rewards and punishments. These doctrines are all yea and 
amen in Christ, and those who believe in him build upon 
this great foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ being the chief corner-stone; and being renewed, the 
spirit of Christ fills their hearts and brings them up to the 
Lord's terms and perfect standard of Christian communion 
and fellowship. 

III. We propose next to prove the essential unity of the 
Church or spiritual family of the Lord Jesus Christ. This 
we have already anticipated in the arguments advanced in 
favor of Christian rights and grants made by the great Head 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROW. 523 

of the Church to the whole body and to each member belong- 
ing to it. Should it be proven that the Lord's people are 
one, then the argument stands on the undisputed fact that 
whatever may be the privileges of one member are unoubt- 
edly the right of all, and if God would have one member to 
commune at his table, then we affirm without any fear of 
successful contradiction, that he would have all to do in like 
manner, and as a band of brethren and children of one 
Father to meet around one table in prospect of one heaven. 
That such is the will of God we fully and firmly believe, and 
that it ought to be the mind and will of all who have the 
spirit of Christ, no Christian can doubt, whatever his 
opinions may be as to modes and forms. It is enough to 
know that they have the spirit of Christ and are his. This 
is a high claim, an immutable charter given, granted, signed, 
and sealed in the high court of heaven. Witness it, ye 
angels, and hear testimony, all ye saints of the living God. 
If any Christians or body of Christians should deny the 
grant, break the seal of the living God, divide what God 
hath joined, and advocate close communion : then to prove 
the unity of the Church or body of believers, we begin with 
the unity of God. 1 Cor. vin. 6: "But to us there is but 
one God." Eph. iv. 6: u One God and Father of all, who is 
above all, and through all, and in you all." 1 John v. 7: 
"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, 
the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" — 
one infinitely perfect and immutable God; he is one in mind 
and changes not. The plan of salvation is one and the same 
in all ages, and has but one foundation, which is Christ. 
1 Cor. in. 11: "For other foundation can no man lay than 
that is laid, which is Christ Jesus." Isa. xxviii. 16: "There- 
fore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a 
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a 
sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste." 
Matt. xvi. 18: "And upon this rock I will build my Church; 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." That 
there is but one God is evident; that there is but one Lord 
Jesus Christ and but one Church or spiritual building, 
and Christ the foundation of it, is equally certain. 






524 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

This is the same foundation which God laid in the 
beginning, and he has never laid another. This is the 
stone that smote the image and became a great mountain 
and filled the whole earth. It was rejected of man, but 
chosen of God, and precious, upon this anointed corner-stone 
the Grand Master builder, in accordance with his immutable 
plan, commenced and will carry on the work until the loud 
triumphant shouts of the workmen shall attend the crown- 
ing of the building or the laying of the cap-stone. ' Tis 
God's building and marvelous in our eyes — built without 
hands for immortality. Peter says (1 Peter n. 4, 5), "To 
whom, coming as unto a living stone," etc. (Christ is a 
living stone.) Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual 
house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices 
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. This house is a spiritual 
house, made up of lively stones, all builded and cemented 
together, filled with the love of God and his Holy Spirit. 
They come to Christ by faith; God justifies and the Holy 
Spirit changes and places them in the building. Divisions 
and contentions are the fruits of sin. Sin separated man 
from God at first, and made man the enemy of God and 
man. It has divided and distracted the whole human race 
ever since, and filled the world with wailing and woe; and 
man separated from God is separated from man, and is man- 
ifestly the enemy of both. Nothing but grace can reconcile 
him to God and his fellow-men, and no sooner is he renewed 
by grace than he loves both. The plan of salvation was 
designed to destroy the works of the devil, to break down 
the walls, and to make the twain one new man, so making 
peace; and Christ provided amply for the whole family of 
man, that the world so divided and ruined by sin might 
become one united and lovely family of the Lord; no more 
to learn and practice war, but to make common cause against 
the adversary of God and man, united under one great 
leader, whether Jews or Gentiles, bond or free. For, says 
Paul (Eph. ir. 13-16), "But now in Christ Jesus ye who 
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ, 
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath 
broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 525 

having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of 
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in him- 
self of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he 
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, 
having slain the enmity thereby." Here, we remark, that 
Christ took all things out of the way that had a tendency 
to cause divisions and to separate those who are brought 
nigh and reconciled to God in one body by the blood of 
Christ; and evidently nothing has been instituted since, by 
the name of ordinances, the tendency of which would be to 
divide the Lord's body if rightly understood; and no one's 
opinion of ordinances can possibly be right when it would 
lead to such fearful results, however important those ordi- 
nances may be in and of themselves. The design of the 
institution was to unite Jiis people, by all means, and not to 
divide; and if Christians would see, they might see and 
know their religious opinions to be wrong when opposed to 
God and his Word, for wrong they must be whenever they 
wage war upon the unity of the Church and divide the 
household of faith. For Christ is not divided, but is one. 
"For through him we both have access (both Jews and 
Gentiles) by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore 
ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens 
with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built 
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom all the 
building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple 
in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an 
habitation of God through the Spirit."— Eph. n. 18-22. 
Here we see all the great doctrines of the Cross harmonizing 
and concentrating in Christ, the chief corner-stone; and at 
the same time the whole Church fitly framed together by the 
Holy Spirit, and builded together upon this immutable founda- 
tion for an habitation of God. God is the builder and he claims 
the house for his own habitation. 1 Cor. vi. 19: "What? 
know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 
which is in you ? " And again, Paul, speaking to believers, says, 
"Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." 
— 1 Cor. xii. 27. "But now hath God set the members every 



526 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if 
they were all one member, where were the body? But now 
are they many members, yet but one body." — 1 Cor. xn. 
18-20. "From whom the whole body fitly joined together 
and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, accord- 
to the effectual working in the measure of every part, 
maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in 
love." — Eph. iv. 16. The Lord's people, though a great 
multitude that no man can number, from every nation, 
country, and kingdom, are but one body, and have but one 
head, even Christ. He is the bride-groom. They are the 
Lamb's wife — kindred spirits joined and banded together 
with celestial ligaments, under the same laws and regula- 
tions, entitled to the same immunities, filled with the same 
vitality, rooted and grounded in love, loving their great 
living Head and one another. But how are they made 
members of the body of Christ? Let Paul answer: "For 
by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we 
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have 
been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not 
one member, but many." — 1 Cor. XII. 13, 14. According to 
Paul, the body is a spiritual body, the work of the Spirit or 
Holy Ghost; and what he affirms of one member he affirms 
of all — that they were all baptized into the body by one 
Spirit, and were all made to drink into one Spirit, which is 
the Holy Ghost, and the baptism was the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost. Hence, the Spirit is one, the baptism one, and 
the body one. And the same apostle exhorts them to 
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; for, 
says he, there is one body and one Spirit, even as ye 
are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one 
faith, one baptism (the baptism of the Spirit), one God 
and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and 
in you all. 

We shall now append to the above some of the sayings of 
the Lord Jesus in his mediatorial prayer, etc. He calls him- 
self the good shepherd and his people a flock. Speak- 
ing of the calling of the Gentiles, he says, "And other 
sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 527 

must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there 
shall be one fold and one shepherd." — John x. 16. And 
then he prays for the unity of the Church: " That 
they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and 
I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which 
thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one 
even as we are one : I in them, and thou in me, that they 
may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know 
that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast 
loved me." — John xvii. 21-23. The Saviour never prayed 
without being heard and answered by the Father, for lie 
knew and came to do the Father's will; and it was the will 
of the Father that his people might be united in one and he 
one. So the Saviour prayed, and so it is the Church is one. 
It will also be seen that Christ speaks of the unity of the 
Church as proof to the world that he was the Messiah, the 
sent-of God, that they might be made perfect in one, etc., 
that the world may know that thou hast sent me. The 
same is the test of discipleship, for as God is one and 
his people one, certain it is that they will love their 
Father and each other. If they love him that begat, 
they will love those who are begotten of him. Love to 
God and love to the brethren constitute the sure and 
great test of pure and undefiled religion. This is relig- 
ion, and by it all God's laws and commandments are 
fulfilled. "A new commandment I give unto you, that 
ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also 
love one another. By this shall all men know that ye 
are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." — 
John xiii. 34, 35. 

We may then say, in the language of the beloved 
disciple, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is 
of God; and every one that loveth, is born of God and 
fcnoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God: 
for God is love." 

In conclusion, we remark that God's people have no right 
or authority from him to divide themselves, or to withdraw 
from any one, unless he brings in damnable heresy, even 



528 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

denying the Lord that bought him, and this we think good 
people or the children of God will not do. But who has a 
right to proclaim close communion and to divide God's 
regenerated family, whose souls are united to God and filled 
with love to God and one another? Angels would not do it. 
No inspired man ever taught it. No good man, without 
doing great violence to his Christian feelings, can do it 
Neither principalities nor powers, nor things present nor 
things to come, have the right. And God himself will not 
separate that which he hath joined together and made 
welcome at his table. There is but one eucharistical feast 
designed for the household of faith, and originally all God's 
family met around their Father's table, with one accord, to 
celebrate the feast of love. Note, then, that there is one 
God, one Saviour, one sanctifier, one temple, one body, one 
communion of saints below, and one heaven; and all of 
whom God hath pardoned and regenerated, or sanctified and 
qualified for the table above and for communion below in 
the militant kingdom. And forasmuch as it is the will of 
God to receive such into heaven, it should be our will to 
receive them here, for we are all taught to pray, " Thy king- 
dom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 
Therefore we conclude that all opposition to open, free 
communion is against the will of God, both on earth and in 
heaven, and all who practice it, having the Spirit of Christ, 
must feel condemned, feeling that the Lord's Spirit in them 
is grieved; and all that can be pleaded in favor of debarring 
any child of God from his table is a mere form or mode of 
water baptism — what they are pleased to call "coming in at 
the proper door." But if this were all, and the true reason 
with them for close communion, then why not communh 
with those who come in at the right door? In a word, 
why do not the different denominations of Baptists com- 
mune together? But do they do this? No, they do 
not. There is but one conclusion warranted in the 
Bible, and that is, that the whole procedure is wrong, 
and opposed to the law and spirit of this holy sacra- 
ment. And when the bright light of the millennial 
day shall burst upon the world, and all nations rally 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 529 

around the standard of Emanuel, then will be seen close 
communion no more; but all God's children, being filled 
with love, will meet around the table of their common 
Lord, and the will of God be done on earth as it is in 
heaven. Amen. 



SECTION IX 



LECTURE XXVIII— THE APPOINTMENT AND 
SANCTIFICATION OF THE SABBATH. 



Sabbath signifies rest, but it was designed for the worship 
of God as well as rest from labor. While it is right and 
necessary for man to labor, it is no less important for him to 
have rest, as by it good in two ways results to himself. First, 
his physical nature is liable to weariness from the toils of six 
days, and he needs rest to restore and invigorate his wearied 
constitution. Secondly, it is important that he should have 
one day out of seven exclusively set apart for the good of 
both soul and body in the worship of God and a preparation 
for a future rest "which remaineth for the people of God." 
In the appointment of a day of rest, we see both the wisdom 
and goodness of God manifested. He knew what was best 
for man, and he has appointed that which he knew to be for 
the greatest good to both soul and body, here and hereafter. 
He who best knew man best kuew what was best for him, 
and it must be admitted that what he has done was wise and 
good — good for both soul and body. Man who had such a 
high origin and destiny, ought neither to forget nor neglect 
what God has appointed for his good, but should cheerfully 
render obedience in the contemplation and worship of his 
Almighty Maker as his greatest good and chief end. What- 
ever may be our objections to a seventh day's rest, and the 
appointment of that portion of time for that purpose, we 
certainly must and do know, as well as we know our own 
existence and the law of our nature, that we need rest, 
(530) 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 531 

whether it has been appointed or not, and have it we must. 
Man, from his very organism, can neither enjoy health nor 
life to any reasonable extent without it, but is absolutely 
pressed by the necessities of his nature to seek it. It, then, 
being admitted that there is such a being as God, who is our 
wise and gracious Father, reason itself must rightly conclude 
that he has, either by special appointment or otherwise, set 
apart that time. Where revelation reveals the appointment of 
a day of rest for w r eary man by his Maker, it but meets with 
a response and hearty welcome from all creation, " which 
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." It is 
not only necessary for us and our children, but for our 
servants and beasts of burden. All need it, and for the good 
of all God ordained it. But man alone is held responsible 
for its observance, and the head and ruler of a family is as 
fully responsible for his children, servants, and beasts of 
burden as for himself. God has made it his duty to keep 
the Sabbath holy, and to exercise his authority over all 
under his rightful dominion to prevent any and all infrac- 
tions of his laws; and if within his power to prevent such 
infractions, and if he foils to do so, the Lord of the Sabbath 
will require it at his hands. Who that admits the promise 
will question the correctness of the conclusion? Surely no 
one. Then, upon the same principle, the sins of a state or 
nation may be thrown upon the head or heads of such 
departments — upon the law-makers for a disregard of the 
high appointments of God in their enactments, or upon the 
executive for failing to enforce the laws when once enacted 
to guard both the rights of God and the best interests of 
man. Forasmuch, then, as all nations blessed with the light 
of revelation feel not only urged by their very nature to 
seek rest from toil, but know that the King of heaven has 
appointed such a rest and incorporated it in his code of laws, 
engraven with his own finger as upon the ever-enduring 
rock. That code of human laws in which there is nothing 
incorporated to guard and defend such appointment of 
Heaven must be miserably defective, and such law-makers 
exceedingly depraved or blind to a nation's welfare. But 
when such laws have been provided and placed in the hands 



532 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of a chosen executive, clothed with a nation's authority, and 
under a solemn oath to defend a nation's rights and to exe- 
cute their laws, how solemn the responsibility! and how 
depraved must such defaulters be! It is awful to bear a 
nation's sins and to writhe under the frowns of the God of 
nations. Look and see if any nation, kingdom, or country 
blessed with the light of revelation has been prosperous and 
permanent in the enjoyment of religious, civil, and political 
liberty which despised Heaven's institutions and desecrated 
his holy Sabbath. I need but call up before your mind the 
confusion, revolution, bloodshed, and misery of France 
following the abolition of the Sabbath; the desolation of the 
land of milk and honey, the land of the Jews, and the lands 
of popery as monumental evidence of what is here affirmed. 
And these monuments stand to tell the sin of nations now 
and in all coming time, marked and smitten with the anger 
of Heaven, like Lot's wife. And most of all is this true of 
the man of sin, who claims the high prerogatives of Heaven, 
and to be lord of the Sabbath, parading through the streets 
in pomp and pride on the Lord's day, in person or by proxy, 
amid the roar of cannon and the glitter of muskets, trampling 
upon the rights of God and the laws of man, as truly here 
in the land of the Puritans as in those of the old country, 
blighted and peeled throughout his dominions. A nation's 
sins or a nation's virtues may be read in a nation's Sabbaths 
as truly as in a single family, as their regard of the Sabbath 
is a true index to their religion. At to the clear point of 
retrograde with the raau of sin, we may not be able to define 
with certainty whether it commenced with the union of 
Church and state, under Constantine, or at a later day. It 
is enough for our purpose in the argument to know that no 
Christian country or people have declined in religion who 
did not at the same time, if not before, disregard the Sab- 
bath. And, moreover, it is worthy of remark that infidelity 
in all its forms and shades has been associated with a dese- 
cration of the Lord's day in every instance. "Which has the 
priority we may not know, for evil weeds may spring up 
together; yet it is well known that if left to grow and 
mature they will produce their like. And he who turns 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 533 

away from God's law in one point is indifferent to the whole, 
and he who violates one point is guilty of all. And our 
delight in the Sabbath is as our delight in the law of G-od 
where it stands incorporated, or as our love of the law- 
giver. "For if ye love me, keep my commandments." 
" Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." And I will here 
assume, without any fear of successful contradiction, that 
there is not one pure and true branch of the Church on 
earth, and there never has been, that disregarded the Sab- 
bath, and those who neglect it fail in the same degree to give 
evidence of pure religion, and have no pledge from God of 
prosperity. Whatever may have been the amount of infi- 
delity in France before the reign of terror, it is a w T ell- 
attested fact that the storm did not rage in its fury, and 
spread over the land like the sirocco, leaving death and 
lamentation wherever it swept, until the abolition of the 
Christian Sabbath. And whether infidelity prompted them 
to that dreadful deed or only followed as the result, amounts 
to the same thing in the argument, for both infidelity and 
the desecration of the Sabbath in France and other 
countries were begotten and nurtured in the bosom of 
Rome by an unsanctified, time-serving priesthood, in 
whom the French as we[l as many others had no con- 
fidence whatever. And infidelity and Sabbath-breaking 
are oftener found associated together than apart, and both 
more abundant in the foot-prints of Rome than anywhere 
else where the light of revelation has ever shone. Infidelity 
cau never thrive and looseness of life prevail as a nation's 
curse and disgrace, to blast a nation's peace, and shake the 
stability of governments, where God's high commands are 
held sacred and his Sabbath is religiously observed; for the 
appointment and sanctity of the Sabbath is incorporated 
with the doctrine of the Church, and always tells in the 
lives of her friends upon the destiny of the world. Our 
own happy country, one of the freest and fairest portions of 
the world ever blessed with the light of the sun, owes much 
to an open Bible and the Christian Sabbath. Here lies the 
secret of our freedom, the prosperity of our free institutions, 
the progress of learning and intelligence, and the bulwarks 



534 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

of the nation. Close the Bible and abolish the Christian 
Sabbath and our sun of prosperity would set, our churches 
would be forsaken, our institutions of learning would 
dwindle, or if they survived at all, would prove a curse 
rather than a blessing, as they would be the nurseries of 
vice and the hot-beds of infidelity, to send forth into our 
bosom an unsanctified rabble to insult God and enslave the 
people. The pnrest of all laws are the laws of God, and 
the best of all institutions are those from heaven, and such 
as neglect and contemn them are rebels against God and 
the scourge of the world. 

We are instructed, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep 
it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but 
the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it 
thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy 
daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy 
cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six 
days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all 
that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the 
Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." — Ex. xx. 
8-11. This agrees with what is said in Genesis and else- 
where in the sacred Scriptures, with our nature and wants 
as well as with our best interests. And were this institution 
obliterated, while this world remains as it is, both physically 
and morally, it would shock and convulse this world through 
all its ramifications. As to the precise time or day to be 
observed, reckoning from the creation of man, it does not 
appear of any importance. The Jews kept, as they sup- 
posed, the seventh day from creation, but Christians observe 
the first or Jewish Monday. How or for what reason the 
change was made, we are not expressly informed, only we 
know it was made, and for such reasons and by such author- 
ity as the apostles and first Christians fully relied upon. 
We may, therefore, safely come to the conclusion that the 
change was made by the Son of God, who claimed to be 
"Lord of the Sabbath;" and for aught we know, it was not 
only made because on that day he rose from the dead, but 
also to demonstrate that the law was then completely ful- 
filled; that the old dispensation had passed away, and the 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 535 

new was ushered in with, a new day for the Christian Sab- 
bath. There was a change from one day to another, but no 
abolition of the Sabbath and its sanctity. All Jews believed 
that God had appointed the day to be observed, and that 
none but God had any right to change it. Consequently 
those of them who believed Christ to be the Lord God of 
the Sabbath became Christians, and, as a matter of course, 
believed his right to change the day; but those who did not 
believe him the Son of God neither became Christians nor 
regarded the Christian Sabbath. This ought to satisfy us 
that all converted Jews in that day not only believed Jesus 
Christ to be that God who at first ordained the Sabbath and 
had the right to change the day, but they certainly had 
reliable evidence that he had done it. By the Christian 
Sabbath, therefore, we are reminded that Jesus Christ is the 
very God who in the beginning created all things and sancti- 
fied the Sabbath; that he was manifested in the flesh, 
redeemed the world, rose from the dead, and ascended to 
heaven, where he was before he descended; and will so come 
in like manner as he ascended to judge the world. This day 
ought to be remembered and religiously observed in view of 
all these high considerations, with all the weight of divine 
authority pressing upon our hearts and lives. Redeemed 
sinners ought to do no manner of work on the Lord's day, 
nor suffer it to be done by those under their jurisdiction. 
This is the plain teaching of God's Word to all. Such as 
are denominated works of necessity, charity, and mercy, 
may be considered as belonging to religion, when they are 
religiously and conscientiously observed. These, however, 
constitute but a small part of our Sabbath labors. The 
greater part are works of our own administering to the 
flesh — acts of rebellion against the authority of Heaven. 
Here it might be supposed this lecture might end, and not 
descend into particulars further, but here it must not end, 
for many of the most common acts of Sabbath desecration 
in Christendom, remain to be noticed. That the penalty 
annexed to a violation of the Sabbath was a forfeiture* of 
life is certain. The Sabbath-breaker was to be punished 
with death. Under the Christian dispensation the penalty is 



r 



536 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

no less than it was under the Jewish, and violaters are held 
no less responsible, yet the law-giver has reserved the execu- 
tion of his law to himself. " Vengeance is mine, I will 
repay, saith the Lord." Some of the ways in which the 
Sabbath is desecrated in Christendom, and not unfrequently 
by professed Christians, are these : Labor is done on the 
Lord's day by the heads of families, either in person or those 
under their special superintendence and control. Plans are 
previously formed with a full foresight and with the intent 
of trespassing on the Lord's day by traveling on the high- 
ways, running wagons to and from market with produce 
and merchandise, visiting and conversing on worldly inter- 
ests, and subjecting servants to the severest servitude for 
the entertainment of visitors, the running of steamboats and 
steam cars, etc. These are some of the ways in which the 
sanctit} 7 of the Lord's day is infracted throughout Christen- 
dom. Moreover, individuals and companies are chartered 
and licensed by law in many cases to trample upon the 
authority of God by a direct violation of the day of sacred 
rest, or if not chartered, the deeds are done and the execu- 
tive connives at the crimes. Such are not works of necessity 
and charity, and certainly cannot meet with the approbation 
of Him who said, " Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it 
holy." Before closing this lecture, it may be well to remark 
that the proper observance of the Sabbath consists in keep- 
ing it holy. This does not consist alone in refraining from 
labor, as many doubtless who do not labor on the Sabbath 
come far short of keeping it holy. Many of the Jews who 
were so very strict in their observance of the Sabbath, were 
wicked in other respects and neglected the weightier matters 
of the heart. Their worship was an outward form, and they 
worshiped God in ceremony, while their hearts were far 
from him. To keep the Sabbath holy we must do all our 
own work which is right to be done in the six days, as 
Jehovah did, and rest from it all and spend the Sabbath in 
his service, in worshiping him in spirit and in truth as he 
requires it should be done. The Christian Sabbath stands as 
a monument of truth and true religion in the Church of 
God, to keep before our minds our sacred obligations to 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 537 

worship the one only living and true G-od, and to remind us 
of a future rest that remains for the people of God. And 
while the Church remains on earth, and day and night, and 
seed time and harvest endure, her Sabbath, sanctified and 
blessed of the Lord, will continue to be the delight of his 
people. All those who love the Lord of the Sabbath must 
surely love his holy day, and will govern themselves and 
theirs in conformity with its sacred requisitions. 
35 



538 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



LECTURE XXIX.— CHURCH POLITY OR GOV- 
ERNMENT. 



In the very outset our minds are led to contemplate a body 
of people to be governed, the laws and regulations for their 
government, and the officers of government to administer 
the laws, which divides the subject into three parts. 

1. First, then, the body of people to be governed is called 
Church and also kingdom of heaven. Whether it be denom- 
inated Church or kingdom, it was founded by the great 
King of the universe, and in and over it he reigns and will 
continue to reign to the end of time, and will never abdicate 
the throne to make way for a successor. This right he 
claims not alone on the ground of sovereign authority, but 
also by purchase. The visible Church universal is made up 
of all those who are associated together according to the 
principles and regulations of its founder, for the purpose of 
worshiping God. The universal Church mystical is com- 
posed of regenerated persons who worship God in spirit and 
in truth. The unity of the Church consists mainly in one 
Lord, one faith, and one Spirit or one spiritual baptism, " for 
they are all one in Christ Jesus," "having been baptized 
into one body by one Spirit." The reliable mark of identity 
doubtless does exist in every branch of the Christian Church 
throughout the world, however widely they may differ as to 
the externals of religion and church polity. These can never 
disturb the unity, according to the principles laid down. 
That which Constitutes the spiritual kingdom is not a king- 
dom without but a kingdom within, "for the kingdom 
of heaven is in you," said Christ. And we have but to 
open our eyes and look in order to be convinced that the 
Christian and Jewish Churches are one and the same in this 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 539 

respect, having the same marks of identity, and only differ- 
ing in externals, but both uniting in Christ, the chief corner- 
stone, " in whom all the building, fitly framed together, 
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." For we see that 
the Jews' temple erected to God and dedicated to his service 
upon Mt. Moriah, was in due time filled with its divine and 
glorious prototype, who claimed it as his own, founded by 
his ordering, and who never changed any of its great essen- 
tial marks of identity, but only confirmed and gave them a 
fuller development. That which is of vital importance in 
the Christian Church existed in the Jewish, and may now be 
found in the Christian identically as it. was in the old Church, 
with no other alterations except in the externals of religion. 
And the man of Calvary was the divine Shechinah of the 
temple, the rock and vitality of the whole Church. As the 
individuality of the man is not changed by a change of his 
dress, so the essential elements of the Church are not altered 
by a change of external ordinances, but it remains the same 
in lovelier attire, shining with beams of greater beauty and 
overpowering glory before all nations. " Christ came not to 
destroy, but to fulfil " the law, and while the old material 
temple has fallen and her altars lie in ruins, the living temple 
has survived the wreck unharmed, with all the temple jewels 
shining with living luster. " Upon this rock, said Christ, 
I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." This is the foundation of the apostles 
and prophets, upon which the true Church of God now 
stands and ever has stood, one harmonious whole, beating 
back the angry billows of an agitated ocean. As the marks 
of identity are always sufficiently developed in a living man 
by the pulsations of life to identify him regardless of dress 
or place, so may the Church of Christ be recognized by her 
familiar friends in every age and land, and by her vitality, 
however diversified in other respects. Here I maintain that 
the attempt to trace out the true Church of Christ by cere- 
monies is unsafe and exceedingly hazardous to religion. As 
well might we attempt to identify a man by his hat or coat, 
or to class the robber with the honest citizen because he is 
found in the same kind of dress. God has driven us more 



540 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

indubitable marks of recognition. "By their fruits ye shall 
know them," and not because they say, lo here, or lo there. 
We are not to believe them unless they manifest life, "for if 
any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 
Therefore, when we begin with the external ordinances of 
religion in search of the true Church, and stop there without 
penetrating into the interior, we stop short of the true marks 
of the Church, which are never to be found in externals 
alone. However they may be in harmony with our notion 
of the original type we may be decived by them. 

That which is indispensable as a meetness for heaven in all, 
and constitutes essentially the children of God, manifestly 
exists in different branches of the Church, who at the same 
time may differ widely in modes and forms as well as in some 
minor points of doctrine. Such, however, are all alike the 
children of God and members of the Church of Jesus 
Christ, and should have the same care one for another. To 
account for this unity in relation to the essentials .of Chris- 
tianity, while there exists such diversity in ceremonies, we 
have only to learn the importance which the great Head of 
the Church attaches to each as it has been expressed in his 
Word. There it w T ill be seen not only that what is essential 
to salvation is more clearly written, but there will be recog- 
nized in each by each the same heavenly birth by the same 
Spirit, which should ever lead us to the exercise of charity 
to each other, and to attach more or less importance to 
things, as we see it has been so considered by the Lord him- 
self. And, finally, if any one branch of the Church has any 
superiority above others, it can only be in that they are more 
humble and heavenly-minded than others, and having more 
of the mind which was in Christ, are more blessed of God in 
promoting vital religion in the world. This is the Lord's 
seal of approbation upon his own people, known and read 
of all men. Let this be the high court of appeal and it will 
silence many useless cavils as to where the true Church is to 
be found, and what constitutes her vital elements. 

2. The laws and regulations for the government of the 
Church of Christ. — These laws and regulations are to 
be learned mainly from the New Testament, together 






LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 541 

with whatever light may be afforded in the Old by way of 
explanation. 

It does not appear that Christ and his apostles attached 
any great importance to any except the moral law as the 
rule and regulator of the Church. This, however, seems to 
cover the entire range of duty which Christians owe to God 
and to each other, and is at once so broad and perfect as to 
supersede the necessity of any other as a rule of life and 
deportment in the Church. And it may be confidently 
asserted that no law or regulation can be innocently intro- 
duced into the Church which in any way conflicts with it; 
but in all cases the enactments of the Church when deemed 
expedient as helps should be in conformity with it. By this 
law all are required to love God with all the heart, soul, 
mind, and strength, and their brethren as themselves. " On 
these hang all the law and the prophets." 

This law forhids every possible crime and enjoins every 
duty, and while it recognizes one, and only one Head of the 
Church, the Lord of all, it evidently places all men upon 
one common level as equals, and admits of no one's lording 
it over another. And the more effectually to check ambi- 
tion, arrogance, and pride, our Lord taught that he who 
would be greatest, should be the servant of all. This law is 
not only adapted to the government of the Church in one 
age and country, but in every one to the end of time; and 
while it is a perfect rule for the government of the heart, it 
is the only perfect rule for the government of the outer man, 
and takes in the whole range of Christian perfection in heart 
and life. Yet it does not appear from its priority and pre- 
eminence to exclude or supersede the necessity of the intro- 
duction of other regulations in the Church, when not inter- 
dicted, but which may be useful; but it must be manifest to 
every one that all the enactments and regulations of the 
Church, when introduced by her friends, ought to be in 
conformity with it, and not of a conflicting tendency. The 
Head of the Church has not given a minute detail of all the 
operations and government of the Church and committed it 
to writing, but has permitted many things to be arranged by 
hi3 people, in conformity with the guiding rule, for the 



542 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

prosperity of the great cause of religion, such as receiving 
members into communion, dealing with disorderly persons, 
missionary operations, etc. These may be attended to either 
by the whole Church, or by any one branch of it, or by any 
one congregation, as their condition in the great field of 
labor and necessities may require. Yet even in these 
matters uniformity and agreement are very desirable where 
they can be had, and especially in the same branch of the 
Church and under the same civil government. Although 
the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, but the very 
opposite of it in all its departments and throughout all its 
ramifications, yet it does not interfere with civil governments 
nor wage any war with them, only in so far as it wars with 
sin. Its aggressions are upon the hearts and lives of wicked 
men, and through that channel upon the kingdom of dark- 
ness. Hence, while this kingdom is entirely distinct and 
separate from all the kingdoms of this world, it interferes 
with none of them, but only with the evil which exists in 
them all, the removal of which only tends to their stability 
and prosperity under all salutary human governments. But 
while it interferes with none, it forms no alliances nor amal- 
gamates with any, nor does it ask more of any than non- 
interference. It stands upon its own foundation, commends 
itself by its own merits, and moves by its own energies, and 
the allegiance required is that of the heart and life. The 
kingdom of Christ being a unit, and essentially the same in 
all ages and peaces, Abraham and his infant seed were essen- 
tially members of the New Testament Church, forasmuch as 
he is the father of all the faithful, and together with them 
was under the same law of love and the same covenant of 
grace, and upon the same rock of the Church. The differ- 
ence, therefore, between him and his seed in what we call 
ISTew Testament times, does not consist in his being in one 
Church and they in another, but in the ceremonials 
of the same Church then and now. They were more 
numerous and burthensome then than now, and in some 
respects different. Here it is desirable to know whether 
he who made and ordained such regulations in the Church 
then, by which the infant seed of the believers who entered 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 543 

into the covenant of grace with the Head of the Church 
became members, has continued the same to the present 
time or whether he has repealed them. This much appears 
to be demonstrated in relation to the question under con- 
sideration : that infants belong to the kingdom which Christ 
said is not of this world, and to controvert and contradict it, 
is in substance to controvert and contradict Christ, who both 
ordained and proclaimed it. Consequently, if it were possi- 
ble to prove that infants, as above named, had no right to or 
connection with the Church in olden times, it is certain that 
they have now, forasmuch as he who best knew said, " Of 
such is the kingdom of heaven." As to how members are 
now to be admitted to the visible Church, this much is cer- 
tain : while all the ceremony of receiving is not given, 
baptism is to be administered to them as an outward sign of 
recognition, as circumcision was in early times, and indis- 
criminately to old and young. There was a Church on the 
day of Pentecost and many were added to it, and it appears 
they were baptized, but as to any other ceremony in their 
admission we are not informed, nor is there any definite 
form of church government given in the New Testament. 
Yet there doubtless was something of that kind exercised in 
the Church, and her members were the subjects of discipline. 
But the very circumstance of its not having been made a 
matter of record under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is 
sufficient to prove that such matters were left to the Church 
to be regulated by her in conformity with first great princi- 
ples and the diversified condition of the world. And Arch- 
bishop "Whately contends that the Church has a right to 
make such regulations for herself as may be deemed neces- 
sary and useful, when they are not contrary to the Word of 
God and the spirit of Christianity. And he, moreover, con- 
tends with great ability that while there evidently was gov- 
ernment and discipline in the Church from the days of the 
apostles, that the form of government canuot be fully ascer- 
tained, but inclines to the opinion that the government was 
Congregational immediately after the day of Pentecost, 
when congregations began to be formed beyond Judea; and 
that no congregation was subject to the control of any other 



544 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

as a superior, but all were equals, and held together as a unit 
by first great principles. Whether he is correct in his 
opinion in every particular or not, this much being admitted 
by a high prelate of the Episcopal Church, the way appears 
to be open on that side for free thought and untrammeled 
opinion by others, as to what form of government may seem 
to them most apposite and scriptural. Nor can any one in 
the absence of any clear specifications on church government 
in the New Testament, justly claim any superiority over 
another in this respect, only in so far as the ends of govern- 
ment are better secured by happier results to the kingdom of 
Christ. Let it, however, be borne in mind that no regula- 
tions in the Church can be salutary and pleasing to God 
which sets at defiance the equality which he has established 
in it, and opens the way for lordly domination and unhal- 
lowed claims to supremacy. Further remarks on this subject 
will be delayed for the present, and introduced at another 
time and place in this lecture. 

3. Thirdly, the officers of the Church of Jesus Christ who are 
to administer in his name, and to what extent. 

All who admit that Jesus Christ established a Church on 
earth are agreed as to the necessity of laws and regulations 
and of powers to rule, and the ministers of the Word and 
sacraments are at least a constituent part of the ruling power 
in every branch of the Church known to us. As the Church 
is composed of ministers and lay members, she has in her 
own body the elements of self-government, guided by the 
light of revelation, and from this view of the subject the 
government of the Church may be considered congrega- 
tional. Then, as a matter of course, where the right to 
govern is vested in the Church, she has the liberty of exer- 
cising this prerogative in whatever way she may find to be 
best calculated to secure all the ends of good government, 
whether as a popular assembly or by the delegation of such 
rights to chosen representatives. The government still, 
remains congregational when, by the free suffrage of the 
people, their rights are committed to representatives with 
instructions, but vested with all the rights which they them- 
selves had, but ho more. By such an arrangement there 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 545 

would be no radical change in the principles of government, 
the change consisting alone in the mode of administration 
and not in vital elements. By the same method of reasoning, 
it will be seen that such representatives are amenable to the 
people who created them, and are held responsible for the 
faithful performance of their duty ; and for dereliction in 
duty or maladministration in office, are liable to be removed 
by the same power which placed them in authority, llence, 
the powers committed by the people to such agents are not 
surrendered regardless of consequences, to be the instruments 
of usurpation and tyranny, but it is still held as a check in 
the hands of those who committed it in trust during good 
behaviour, to be resumed at pleasure, whenever circum- 
stances shall make it necessary. And in so far as it relates 
to human laws and regulations, whether enacted by the 
popular assembly in the mass or by proxy, they have the 
power in their own hands of controling both the laws and 
the agents through whose delegated powers the laws were 
framed. Here we have but to recur to the great law of the 
Church which places all her members upon a perfect level 
and equality, to see that Christ has created neither slaves 
nor lords in his Church, but a band of brethren, obligated to 
love God and each other. And here the way is closed up 
and the door forever shut against all enactments or lawful 
means of creating lords in the Church with anything like 
divine approbation, and all who claim such lordly preroga- 
tives over their brethren are to be viewed in no other light 
than that of rebels against God and demons among the sons 
of God. ~No one, whether minister or lay member, should 
hold an office in the Church during life, but only while 
faithful in office and upright in life, nor should any one be 
suffered to rule in the church above that of a private mem- 
ber, only as he may be elected by the suffrage of the people. 
The people, as a congregation, have the right in all cases to 
choose their own minister, and also the right of displacing 
him whenever it may become necessary and a duty to do so. 
But such changes, whenever they occur, leave each party 
free, the minister to go elsewhere and seek another field of 
labor and the congregation to elect another pastor. But in 



546 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

no case has one minister the right to intrude himself upon 
the charge of another to officiate in any way, unless per- 
mitted by the minister and his flock, as all such assumptions 
and liberties must have an evil tendency, and open the way 
for one man to trample upon another. If a minister have no 
charge of any kind, neither as a regular pastor of a congrega- 
tion nor as an itinerant, nor in any way exercises his minis- 
terial functions according to the design of that office in the 
Church, it is very doubtful whether he has any right in the 
administration of government in the Church more than 
another private member. For such a phenomenon, should it 
occur, would demonstrate either unfaithfulness or incom- 
petency, either of which ought to deprive him of ministerial 
prerogatives. 

The controversy has been both protracted and warm in 
the Christian world as to what was the precise form of gov- 
ernment in the Church in apostolic times and immediately 
thereafter, whether it was Episcopal, Congregational, in the 
latitudinous sense of that term, or representative. If these 
questions were of easy adjustment, and definitely taught 
either in the New Testament or by the early fathers, or both, 
they would doubtless have been settled long ere this time. 
But the unsettled state of this question after the lapse of 
ages, and the learning and research which have been brought 
into requisition, is at least sufficient to show that neither the 
fathers nor the New Testament has set this question at rest 
by bringing all good men to think alike. All, however, are 
agreed that Christ did establish the Church called by his 
name, called ministers of the gospel, instituted sacraments. 
And there was government and discipline in that Church, 
but as to all the forms, it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to 
determine from any or all the sources of information handed 
dow T n to us. One thing is certain to our minds, as Bishop 
Whately says, that forasmuch as these things were not com- 
mitted to record in detail by the Holy Spirit, but designedly 
passed over, we are to understand that the Head of the 
Church designed to leave all Christians free in the exercise 
of their own opinion as to the form of church government 
and other things not essential to vital Christianity. And as 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 547 

to a regular succession from the apostles, every branch aud 
every congregation of Christians is in the line of succession 
which is founded on the chief corner-stone, " the foundation 
of the apostles and the prophets," and retain the vital prin- 
ciples of Christianity regardless of their church polity. 
Hence, there is unity in diversity and diversity in unity, 
unity in vitality, and diversity in non-essentisls. One rea- 
son why Christian men have come to different conclusions as 
to the form of government in the Church in primitive times, 
may be that too little attention has been paid to the actual 
operations of the Church in the days of the apostles, and 
how and by whom the business of the Church was trans- 
acted. If we look, then, in the light of sober reason, guided 
by what is written in the ~New Testament, we shall doubtless 
see that the ministers and brethren all united, transacted 
what business was fit and right to be done, except such 
service as was purely ministerial. And it will, moreover, 
appear that the same church which transacted business in 
her united capacity, did as she had the right to do, elect 
certain persons in their own body as delegates and repre- 
sentatives to transact business for them and in their name, 
and held them amenable. And while the form of govern- 
ment was congregational in its elements, it was representa- 
tive in its policy at option. The primitive Church, in her 
united capacity, filled the vacant seat of Judas, and they also 
chose deacons to transact certain business for them; and 
there were in the same church at Jerusalem men denom- 
inated elders, who were not apostles but were associated 
w r ith them in council. And when the church of Antioch 
was disturbed by certain Judaising teachers, the whole 
church met in council and chose Paul and Barnabas with 
some others and sent them to Jerusalem, where the apostles 
and elders met and consulted with the delegates from Anti- 
och, which resulted in a written communication from the 
apostles and elders ; and the whole church at Jerusalem sent 
delegates accompanying Paul and Barnabas and those who 
came with them to the brethren at Antioch. (See Acts I., 
vi., xv.) We see in a brief statement how the Church trans- 
acted at least part of her business in primitive times. And 



548 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

while these congregations conferred with each other as mem- 
bers of the same fraternity, they at the same time present 
all the marks of independent congregations. Who those 
elders were in the church at Jerusalem, it may not be easy 
to determine, whether ministers or laymen. This, however, 
will receive some attention hereafter. 

In relation to the primitive Church, Moshiem says, " In 
those primitive times each Christian church was composed 
of the people, the presiding officers, and the assistants or 
deacons. These must be the component parts of every 
society. The principal voice was that of the people or of 
the whole body of Christians, for even the apostles them- 
selves inculcated by their example that nothing of any 
moment was to be done or determined on but with the 
knowledge and consent of the brotherhood. The assembled 
people, therefore, elected their own rulers and teachers, or 
by their free consent received such as were nominated to 
them ; . . . and, in a word, the people did everything 
that is proper for those in whom the supreme power of the 
communit3 T is vested." Again he says, "Among all mem- 
bers of the Church, of whatever class or condition, there 
was the most perfect equality." — Vol. L, Book I., p. 68. In 
all this he manifestly accords with the acts of the apostles, as 
has been shown above. Therefore, while the right is con- 
ceded to every Christian community of framing their code 
of by-laws for themselves, when done in conformity with 
first great principles, it is nevertheless true that no such law 
or regulation existed in the primitive Church as placed one 
member above another; nor can any such be produced as 
coming from Christ or his apostles, for equality is the great 
law of his kingdom, and rulers in his empire were to be 
chosen by the people, not as lords but as servants. The very 
design of church government was to aid and prosper the 
cause of religion and not to oppress the Church. And 
whenever any Christian people feel the hand of oppression 
bearing down heavily upon them, they have the right to 
throw it off by reformation, and it is their wisdom and duty 
to do so. 

As the Christian ministry constitute a prominent part of 



LECTURES OE DR. BURROW. 549 

the Church of Jesus Christ, our thoughts may be turned in 
that direction for a time. At once our thoughts are trans- 
mitted to primitive times, when Christ called the twelve and 
seventy and sent them out into the land of Judea. And 
indeed of .that remote period we have more correct informa- 
tion of the Church as it was in the days of the apostles than 
in after ages, when the inspired record closed and we are 
left to the guidance of fallible men. This much may be 
asserted, that there was an early departure from the apostolic 
platform of equality as it was established by Christ, and 
those who succeeded them in the ministry (though not as 
apostles) soon became excited with the same old agitator as 
to who should be greatest. A desire to be great is of evil 
origin, and may be considered as one of the ruling passions 
of the world, and not unfrequently it has the audacity to 
intrude upon holy ground and present itself to the minister of 
the sanctuary, and it needs to be promptly met with a killing 
rebuke. Iu relation to the seventy, we know but little, the 
account given of them being so very brief, but of the twelve 
apostles we have a fuller history, and many incidents of their 
lives and labors have been recorded by the inspired writers. 
In these writings we are fully informed that he who called 
them made no distinction between them in any way, but 
sedulously and uniformly inculcated that they were equal in 
every respect, and that no one had any preeminence above 
another. This will appear the more manifest and incontro- 
vertible from the fact that they had thought otherwise from a 
mistaken notion of the nature of their Master's kingdom and 
his promptness in correcting their errors, for when the twelve 
were all grouped together and evidently agitated with jeal- 
ousies occasioned by a request made by the mother of John 
aud James, praying that her sons might have some peculiar 
honors above the other apostles, Christ taught them that no 
such prerogatives were allowed in his kingdom, and that he 
alone was Lord over them all, and they were equal to each 
other in all things. Jesus said to the twelve, " Ye know 
that they which are accounted to rule over the G-entiles 
exercise lordship over them ; and their great ones exercise 
authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you : but 



550 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: 
and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant 
of all." "Ye are they which have continued with me in my 
temptations- And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my 
Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat.and drink 
at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones (twelve 
thrones) judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (See Matt. xx. 
25-27 ; Mark x. 42-44 ; Luke xxn. 25-30.) 

All such distinctions and prerogatives as belong to the 
kingdoms of this world are excluded from the kingdom of 
Christ by his own declarations and the immutable law of 
that kingdom. The} 7 were not to rule over each other like 
the Gentiles. They all had one kingdom appointed for them, 
and were to eat and drink at one table as one band of broth- 
ers; and as further proof of their equality, they were to sit 
on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Nor 
does it ever again appear that any one of them desired or 
claimed any jurisdiction over another, only such as was 
common to all. Nor can any one set up such claim for any 
one of them now but. in palpable violation of truth and 
honesty, and a bold and presumptions contradiction of ail the 
teachings of Christ and his apostles ; and the first move ever 
made in that direction was the pulsation of anti-Christ, the 
workings of the man of sin, the mystery of iniquity. And 
judging from the past as well 'as the present, no community 
of Christians is safe which allows of any other distinction 
in her ministry than that which Christ himself made, " that 
he who would be greatest, must be servant of all, and labor 
more abundantly than all." Departures from this law and 
regulation of Christ became the hot-bed of popery, which 
hatched and nurtured the man of sin, when pride and the 
spirit of worldly domination crept into the Church, and more 
especially in the time of Constantine, when Church and 
state were united. As the apostles were equal in all respects, 
so it appears from the whole mass of church history that all 
the first ministers of the Church who came immediately after 
them were equal with each other, and each presided in his 
own congregation in concert with it, and looked upon no 
other pastor and his congregation as either higher or lower 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 551 

in office than himself and his flock, and all as integral parts 
of one great spiritual kingdom. This equality among 
bishops of the Church continued until in the synods and 
councils of the Church, which commenced in the latter part 
of the second and became prevalent in the third century, 
wheu it became the custom to elect one of the number to 
preside as modertor or president of the council, who held his 
office during the sittings, but no longer. This same office, 
however, became by degrees more and more permanent, until 
finally it became permanent for life. This was accomplished 
in part by usurpation and partly by consent of the other 
members in council. The result was that such persons 
became dictators and sought to lord it over all the flock of 
Christ, and in justification of their conduct claimed their 
prerogatives through the Apostle Peter, to whom Jesus 
Christ never made any such grants, nor did Peter ever set 
up any such claim for himself. So far from it, that Paul, 
who though he was, as he says, the least of all the apostles, 
was equal to the chiefest of all, and withstood Peter to the 
face and blamed him for some of his misconduct, which was 
very strange treatment of a Pope. But if he was such in 
any sense whatever, neither Paul nor any of the other apos- 
tles, nor Peter himself, ever knew it. In his first, general 
epistle (v. 1-5) Peter writes, "The elders which are among 
you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the 
sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that 
shall be revealed : feed the flock of God which is among 
you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but 
willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither 
as being lords over God's heritage, but being en samples to 
the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye 
shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Like- 
wise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, 
all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with 
humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to 
the humble." 

The elders addressed by Peter not only had charge of the 
flock of Christ as overseers to govern according to rule, but 
they were feeders of the flock — ministers of the gospel; and 



552 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

whatever Peter was in this respect, these elders were the 
same as he was, for he says, I am also an elder. These 
elders or presbyters were not all seniors, some of them were 
young men, but all equals, and equal to Peter himself, who 
was also an elder. And while Peter exhorts them all to be 
subject one to another, and not to lord it over God's heritage, 
he claims no lordly prerogatives over them for himself, as his 
own testimony must forever demonstrate. There was only 
one chief Shepherd known to Peter, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
to whom they all owed allegiance. Now, if Peter had held 
any office in the Church above that of an elder or presbyter 
we might expect some intimation of it from his own mouth 
in this place, but instead of this we have evidence to the 
contrary, and the whole connection goes to prove that there 
was but one grade and order of ministers in the Church of 
Jesus Christ known to Peter, whether they be denominated 
elders, presbyters, or bishops. Such is the testimony of 
Mosheim, Book I., cent. 1, pp. 69-71 : " The rulers of the 
Church were denominated sometimes presbyters or elders, 
a designation borrowed from the Jews, and indicative rather 
of the wisdom than the age of the persons ; and sometimes 
also bishops ; for it is most manifest that both terms are 
promiscuously used in the New Testament of one and the 
same class of persons. He was first denominated the angel, 
but afterward the bishop, a title of Grecian derivation and 
indicative of his principal business." "But whoever sup- 
poses that the bishop of this first and golden age of the 
Church corresponded with the bishops of the following 
centuries, must blend and confound characters that are very 
different. For in this century and the next a bishop had 
charge of a single church, which might ordinarily be con- 
tained in a private house ; nor was he its lord, but was in 
reality its minister or servant. He instructed the people and 
conducted all parts of public worship." The elders of Ephe- 
su8, who, by the request of Paul, met him at Miletus, were 
ministers of the gospel, as appears from his address to them 
(Acts xx. 17-28), " And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus 
and called the elders of the church," and when he had 
rehearsed to them his manner of life and labors of love 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 553 

among them, he exhorted them as follows: "Take heed 
therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the 
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of 
God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." These 
elders, like those addressed by Peter, had the care of souls, 
were feeders of the flock of Christ, and had the oversight of 
the Church by the appointment of the Holy Ghost, and as 
such they were all bishops. From the New Testament and 
the history of the Church for the flrst two centuries, it may 
be fearlessly affirmed that there was no disparity among the 
ministers of the gospel created or authorized by Jesus Christ. 
He neither appointed nor did he authorize the appointment 
of diocesau bishops ; and neither Paul, nor Peter, nor any 
of the New Testament writers knew anything of any such 
an office. And it is worthy of special remark that the mys- 
tery of iniquity had its first pulsations and workings at this 
very point, and the man of siu manifested himself in the 
establishment of higher orders in the ministry than were 
authorized by the example and laws of the Son of God. 
And no sooner do we hear of the appointment of lordly 
prelates in the Church, which Christ had positively inter- 
dicted, than we hear of one continuous turmoil, which 
resulted in the dark ages, and brought a foul stain upon the 
Christian cause and name. 

It might be necessary to offer additional proof in confirma- 
tion of the equality of Christ's ministers as it was ordained 
by himself, were it not most manifest that there is not to be 
found in the whole of the New Testament one single sentence 
to the contrary. The proof is all on the side of equality. 
And all men who are acquainted with the history of the 
Church know that the diversity of orders in the ministry, of 
higher and lower, were derived from the heathen — from 
idolatrous nations which became early converts' to the Chris- 
tian name. These idolaters, before their conversion to 
Christianity, had their different orders of priests and their 
fascinating regalia, which were engrafted by -adoption into 
the Church to its disgrace and detriment. This, rather than 
the Jewish ritual, was the source of this unwise departure 
from the laws and regulations of Jesus Christ; for while the 
36 



554 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Jews had their Levites, common priests and high priest, they 
had but one high priest at the same time, one temple, and 
one altar for sacrifice. But this order of things was done 
away by Christ, who is himself the only great high priest of 
the Christian Church, and who abideth a priest continually, 
while all his priests are equal to each other, and never can in 
this life depart from this common level with his approbation. 
As Christ, therefore, ordained but one order of ministers, 
and the apostles knew of but one, it is certain, as Mosheim 
says, that elder, presbyter, and bishop are only different 
terms promiscuously applied to the same class of men. 
Hence, Peter and Paul, together with the other apostles, 
were elders, and differed nothing from other elders, as Peter 
says, only as they were witnesses of the sufferings, death, 
and resurrection of Christ. These holy men never forgot 
the important lesson which their Master taught them when 
John and James, through their mother, requested the ascend- 
ency over their brethren in the ministry. He told them 
plainly that they should not rule and exercise lordship over 
each other like the Gentiles. " So shall it not be among 
you;" this is not the order of my house; "but he that will 
be great, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be 
chief, let him be servant of all." 

It is not certain that there were lay elders in the primi- 
tive Church, though it is highly probable. There certainly 
were persons in the Christian Church at Jerusalem who 
were distinguished from the apostles on the one hand and 
the common church members on the other, and these men 
were called elders, as may be seen by reference to Acts xv. 
4, 6, 23: "And when they were come to Jerusalem, they 
were received of the Church, and of the apostles and elders. 
. . . And the apostles and elders came together for to 
consider ol this matter. . . . And they wrote letters by 
them after this manner: The apostles and elders and breth- 
ren send greeting." These elders are spoken of as having 
assembled with the apostles to consider on a matter presented 
by the church at Antioch, but when they wrote it was done 
in the name of the apostles, elders, and brethren. It may 
be that these elders who met in council with the apostles 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 555 

were lay elders, forasmuch as they are distinguished from 
them, and we are not authorized to helieve they were minis- 
ters of the gospel, yet it is certain they participated in the 
government of the church. There were chosen men 
sent with Paul and Barnabas from the church of Antioch to 
the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, and these again sent 
chosen men back to the church in Antioch to bear their 
communications, which were written in the name and with 
the sanction of the whole Church. But this much is certain, 
that ministers of the gospel in that day did not rule and 
govern the church independent of the laity, but manifestly 
with their cooperation. And it, moreover, appears evident 
that there were lay representatives employed in the affairs 
of the church both at Antioch and Jerusalem, and they 
were chosen men. Such are lay elders in the Presbyterian 
Church, and the only ground of controversy touching this 
matter is in relation to the name, for as it relates to the office, 
it must be manifest to all common minds that the primitive 
Church did employ chosen men in important church matters.. 
And these men, thus chosen, for anything we can see, had 
just as much authority in the government of the church as 
the ministers of the gospel, the apostles not excepted. In 
all cases, while mortal men are fallible as they are, the inter- 
ests of the Church are periled by excluding the laity from a 
full participation in her government and surrendering the 
reins of government into the hands of the clergy. Let the 
whole Church govern, either in mass or by chosen represen- 
tatives, as in the days of the apostles. The representative 
form is certainly the most convenient, while at the same 
time the ends of government are fully as well secured, and 
the form of government is in no essential respect changed. 
There remains yet one more reason for concluding that the 
elders at Jerusalem were lay rulers. There were in the Jewish 
Church from the time of Moses certain laymen who bore a 
part in the government of the Church. These men were 
rulers in the temple and synagogue, and are frequently 
called elders of the people. The chief council or Jewish 
Sanhedrim were elders. This appellation was long in use 
among the Jews, and was generally applied to lay rulers. 



I 



556 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

This custom among that people may account for the term 
being retained and applied to the lay rulers in the Christian 
Church after it was organized at Jerusalem, for notwith- 
standing the Jewish ritual was superseded, we have seen that 
there were elders in the Christian Church there, who do not 
appear to have been ministers, but lay rulers, who fully par- 
ticipated in the administration of government and in all the 
important affairs of the Church. 

Concerning the keys of the kingdom mentioned by our 
Lord first to Peter, there has been no little diversity of opin- 
ion and considerable altercation in the Christian world. 
Some have supposed, and especially those who have felt 
ambitious of power and lordly prerogatives in the Church, 
that Christ conferred upon Peter some high gifts and exclu- 
sive authority, which he designed to be handed down from 
age to age to his successors; and that Peter was constituted 
the prince of the apostles, with plenary power to forgive or 
retain sins, and at pleasure to bind or loose whom he would. 
As before stated, it is most manifest that neither Peter nor 
any of all the apostles so understood our Lord, nor is there 
one shadow of evidence from any one of them, in word or 
deed, in support of this pernicious dogma. And certainly 
Paul was not aware of any such thing, but in gross darkness 
and error "when he declared himself not a whit inferior to 
the very chiefest apostle." The plain truth is, that none of 
those holy men ever made the first move in the direction of 
superiority over the others, nor did any one of them ever 
claim the power to forgive sins, and we hear of no such blas- 
phemous attempts ever having been even squinted at by any 
of them in all the New Testament. Such audacity required 
a darker age and consummate depravity to give it birth. 
The subject ot the keys is to be considered not only in view 
of what is recorded in that connection in the sixteenth chap- 
ter of Matthew, but in strict conformity with what the other 
evangelists have said on the same subject, with fair deduc- 
tions from their lives and practice. By pursuing this course 
we shall see as we advance, that if they were faithful to their 
Lord's commands, they understood the power of the keys 
and of forgiving and retaining sins, to consist alone in 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 557 

preaching the gospel and administering the sacraments, in 
admitting members into the Church, and in the exercise of 
church discipline. All this we see they did do in the name 
and by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and nothing 
more nor less. And they all had equal claim to the keys 
and made as free use of them as Peter. Christ said to Peter, 
"And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth 
shall be loosed in heaven." — Matt. xvi. 19. Again : " As my 
Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he 
had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, 
Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, 
they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye 
retain, they are retained." — John xx. 21-23. Here it appears 
all the disciples were present except Thomas, and what he 
said to one he said to all. Now, that this whole subject in 
all its bearing may be fairly before you, see Matt, xviii. 15-18 : 
" Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and 
tell him his fault between thee and him alone : if he shall 
hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not 
hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the 
mouth of two or three witnesses every word ma}^ be estab- 
lished. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto 
the Church: but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him 
be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I 
say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth 
shall be loosed in heaven." Here again it will be seen that 
all the disciples were present, and were all addressed by our 
Lord, one as much as another. The keys, however, are only 
mentioned once, but the binding and loosing, forgiving and 
retaining sins, are several times spoken of in nearly the 
same words as used by our Saviour to Peter, and it is certain 
that Peter was present each time, and must have understood 
the same thing to be meant each time. Then, as it is certain 
the Saviour addressed all the other disciples in the same lan- 
guage, they all had the keys and knew their use and how to 
handle them. When they were to be used in unfolding the 



558 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

plan of salvation and presenting the terms of pardon and 
eternal life to sinners, all who used them for this purpose 
taught repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and that God would pardon penitent believers and 
admit them into heaven, but the disobedient and unbeliev- 
ing he would exclude forever. With regard to church dis- 
cipline and censures, the keys are fully defined and the 
course to be taken is plainly marked out. Disputes between 
individual members may be adjusted by themselves as our 
Lord directs, but in case of failure, it has to go, not before 
Peter or Paul, but before the Church. The Church in this 
case has the keys, for the Church has the right of admitting 
members to communion, and also of censuring and exclud- 
ing offenders. And again, the Church may remove her own 
censures when, in her Christian judgment, it becomes right 
to do so. And in so far as she acts in strict conformity with 
the rule given by Christ, he will approve and ratify as he 
said. All sins committed by men against their fellow-men 
must be infractions of the divine law, which binds man to 
man and all men to love and reverence God. Sins com- 
mitted against men may and ought to be forgiven by men, 
as our Lord directs, until seventy times seven, where there is 
a manifestation of repentance. But sins committed against 
God cannot be forgiven by men. They can only be forgiven 
by the great Supreme Law-giver himself. And even the 
sins' which we commit against each other are at the same 
time sins against God, and while we forgive each other, as it 
is our Christian privilege and duty to do, yet this will avail 
nothing unless God should extend pardon as broad as the 
offense. The Church may forgive and yet the Lord may not. 
And again, the Lord may and doubtless does forgive in many 
cases where the Church does not, for she often errs. Hence, 
in all cases pardon and all other mercies and blessings are 
from God alone, and where he has promised to ratify what 
the Church does, it must be understood of things which he 
has commanded her to do, and which she does according to 
his Word and in the right spirit — the spirit of Christ. The 
keys in the hand of ministers of the gospel are rightly used 
by them in preaching Christ, and through him justification 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 559 

and eternal life; and in the hands of the Church they are 
used as Christ designed, in uniting with the ministry in 
building up the kingdom of Christ and the government 
thereof. All united are to govern in wisdom and mercy, for 
edification and not for destruction. The counsel of Christ 
to the Church is to separate herself from disorderly and 
wicked persons who cannot be reclaimed, but never to follow 
such with her anathemas, but to pray for them. 

Ecclesiastical rulers have no right to interfere with civil 
government, nor is it the prerogative of civil rulers to inter- 
fere with church polity. Separation is most salutary for both. 
Christ and his apostles paid tribute to whom tribute was 
due, and custom to whom custom, and honor to whom 
honor, and lived peaceably with all men as best they could, 
but they never invited the secular arm nor the sword to 
their defense in any way. Though some divines have sup- 
posed not only that these powers may be rightfully employed 
in defense of the truth, but that God has ordained them in 
the hands of the magistrate for the special purpose of pun- 
ishing evil-doers, both in and out of the Church. Among 
other portions of the Scriptures of divine truth, they refer 
to the thirteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, 
where the writer speaks of certain powers ordained of God 
and denominated his ministers. Whatever these powers 
may be, Christians are urged to obey them from the weighty 
consideration that God ordaiued them, and they are his 
ministers for good and a terror to evil. It is said that they 
bear the sword for the punishment of evil-doers. But it 
must be observed that the moral law stands prominent in 
this connection, and seems to be held up as the rule of these 
powers as well as for the ruled who are exhorted to render 
obedience, and both rulers and the ruled are to be governed 
by this law. As all secular powers indiscriminately do not 
rule in conformity with the moral law, but in some cases 
wage war upon God and his government, it may be seriously 
questioned whether all kings and magistrates are his minis- 
ters; for many of them not only do not punish evil-doers, 
but it is well known that they often spare evil-doers and 
punish the innocent and virtuous, and that, too, for their 



560 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

loyalt}' to the King of heaven. I conclude, there- 
fore, that we are not authorized to believe that Paul had 
reference to power outside of the Church when he declares 
them to be God's ministers for good and a terror to evil- 
doers, for, as before shown, the reference could not be to all 
powers indiscriminately, as many of them are opposed to 
God and all purity, and to obey them would virtually J)e to 
disobey God and trample upon his authority. But as to the 
question of loyalty to civil rulers, this is not questioned in 
the least degree. They are to be obeyed where it does not 
lead to disloyalty to the King of heaven and the perpetration 
of crime. As these powers were ordained of God and were 
his ministers for good, and Christians are admonished to 
obey them in the discharge of their Christian duties, it must 
be manifest that these powers are to be understood of powers 
in the Church. Nothing can be plainer and more fully 
demonstrated than our high obligations to render obedience 
to God, nor can anything be more palpably false and absurd 
than to suppose that God has created powers and obligated 
us to obey them as a religious duty, when it is well known 
that many of these secular powers neither fear God nor 
regard man, and obedience to them would be incompatible 
with our allegiance to the Most High. " Let every soul be 
subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but 
of God : the powers that be are ordained of God. Whoso- 
ever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of 
God." Because tribute is due and may be lawfully paid to 
Cesar, that is no evidence that he is one of God's ministers 
for good; nor is it true that God has armed any one with 
the sword, in or out of the Church, for the punishment of 
evil-doers, much less all his ordained powers. Where Paul 
mentions the sword as being in the hands of these powers 
or rulers, it is to be understood correctly in a metaphorical 
sense. The sword is an emblem of authority in the Church, 
to admonish, reprove, rebuke, with all long suffering and 
doctrine; to exercise discipline and correct evils in the name 
and by the authority of Jesus Christ, but never to shed blood 
or in any way to violate the law of love. u Owe no man 
anything, but to love one another," says Paul, which is every- 



LECTURES OF DR, BURROW. 561 

where throughout the New Testament the teachings of 
Christ. And the only sword which the Head of the Church 
has authorized his servants to use is the Word and Spirit, 
which are mighty through God to the putting down of 
strongholds. And the powers and rulers in the Church are 
such as we have before shown them to be, and the standing 
admonition is to esteem others better than ourselves, and to 
be subject one to another. And let it be remembered that 
the Lord has appointed no powers in his kingdom to lord it 
over his heritage, and if there be either in or out of the 
Church powers which come not up to this rule, they are not 
Christ'6 friends, but his enemies. All the teachings of Christ 
and his apostles, together with their lives, present a com- 
ment upon church government to be read and known by all 
men, so as to leave not one shadow to obscure the true mean- 
ing of the keys and the power of the sword ; for we see that 
these were committed to the first ministers and Christians, 
and were wielded by them as the Master designed they 
should be. But what were they in those hands ? Manifestly 
no lordly power, no fleshly arm, no sword other than has 
been alluded to. The Word and Spirit were all the weapons 
Jesus Christ ever bequeathed to his Church for her extension 
and defense in the world down to the end of time. And 
the idea never seems to have intruded itself into the minds 
ot men that one man was to lord it over another, or that the 
secular arm and sword were power created by Christ for the 
punishment of heretics and evil-doers, until the Church 
departed from primitive purity and simplicity, disregarded 
the counsels and laws of Christ, and united with the world 
and imbibed its spirit. The spirit which was wont to call 
for fire to fall from heaven upon the enemies of Christ was 
early rebuked by him, and that rebuke stands unrepealed to 
this day. The Church, while she exercises discipline, is to 
do it in conformity with the law of love, and although she 
is commanded to separate herself from the wicked, she is 
strictly forbidden to persecute them. Indeed, the children 
of God are commanded to even love their enemies, and to 
pray for such as despitefully use and persecute them, and 
remember that vengeance belongeth unto God — he will 



562 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

repay. As one error may be and often is fruitful in the pro- 
duction of many, so an egregious blunder in misinterpreting 
Paul in relation to the powers ordained of God, and who are 
said to bear the sword and to be his ministers for good, has 
doubtless opened the way for many errors and inventions of 
Satan, which have been the greatest hindrances and the 
sorest curse to truth and religion. For no sooner than it 
began to be supposed that Jesus Christ had created a diversity 
of orders in the ministry and some lordly prelates in his king- 
dom, and ordained the use of the sword in a literal sense in 
the cause of truth, than the interpretation obtained that the 
magistrates and kings of the earth are all powers ordained 
of God, and are his ministers to bear the sword for the 
defense of truth and the punishment of heretics. Hence, 
the powers in the Church called upon the powers of earth 
to wield the sword as God's ministers of vengeance for good, 
which resulted in rivers of blood, lamentation, and woe. 
This popish interpretation of certain portions of the sacred 
Scriptures has been only too much favored by some Protest- 
ants, in so far as tney have admitted that these powers which 
are said to have been ordained of God are temporal rulers 
bearing a sword of state in their hands, when a little thought 
and investigation would have shown at once that they are 
powers in the Church, and furnished with no other sword 
than has already been demonstrated, and authorized to 
govern in no other way than that of a merciful course of 
discipline, as directed by the moral law, which is couched in 
that very connection of Scripture, and ought to be a true 
index of a correct interpretation. The kingdom of Christ 
is totally different from this world and ought to be separate 
from it. His people may be loyal to the magistrates and 
rulers of earth but never disloyal to the King of heaven, 
and should walk in the light as he is in the light, doing good 
to all men, and be sure to owe no man anything but love. 
" This is right and acceptable with God our Saviour, who 
will have all men to be saved and to come unto a knowledge 
of the truth." Admonished as we are by the light of reve- 
lation, the history of the Church for many ages, and the 
counsel of the wise and good from the time of the apostles 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 563 

to our own times, we should never for one moment conceive 
the idea of a departure from that equality in the ministerial 
corps established by Jesus Christ in his Church, nor ques- 
tion the right of church members to a full participation in 
the government thereof, either by representatives or other- 
wise, for no one who is familiar with the past has failed to 
discover the dark train of evils which has followed such 
departures. And it may be predicted for the future that 
the creation of higher and lower orders in the ministry will 
continue to prove a curse to the Church and to pure religion 
in all coming time, as it has done in the past, without one 
solitary exception. The tendency is to popery and to beget 
pride and lordly domination in the family of the. Lord, for 
which no good reason can be assigned nor apology offered — 
nothing but a mistaken policy, or the lust of the flesh, the 
pride of life, and unsanctified ambition ; such as influenced 
the Jews when they desired to be like other nations, and 
rejected God and his righteous and salutary regulations by 
asking of him a king. Christ alone is our King, Lord, and 
supreme law-giver, and we acknowledge and deisre no other. 



564 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



LECTURE XXX.— ON CHRISTIAN MISSIONS, 
PASTORAL CONNECTIONS, AND MINIS- 
TERIAL SUPPORT. 



The gospel of the Son of God was designed for the world, 
for all nations, and wisely adapted to the wants of all people, 
of every language and tribe. All men being fallen, wretched, 
and ruined, are alike in need of what the remedial system 
proposes to do, and none without its saving benefits can ever 
see God and dwell with him in light. Ignorance and selfish- 
ness are peculiar to all men as though they constituted a part 
of the very nature of all, and truly a manifestation of these 
elements is coextensive with the race, being legitimate fruits 
of a depraved nature. The united wisdom of this world 
would never have devised such a plan as the gospel, nor 
have thought of such self-denial and sacrifices as God has 
ordained for the enlightenment and regeneration of the 
world, nor once of such instruments and agencies as mortal 
men— men of like passions with themselves — sent as ambas- 
sadors of God and messengers of mercy aud peace. When- 
ever great and important matters are to be accomplished, 
men are wont to select and commission the greatest of earth's 
sons for such purposes, as the only competent agencies, aud 
then to reward their services with large sums of the mam- 
mon of unrighteousness. But the Lord of the kingdom at 
whose mandate all the angels fly in swift obedience, has seen 
fit to choose feeble, mortal men as his instruments in the 
grandest and greatest enterprise ever known to the world 
since time began, and one that involves more interests than 
all else. Man is to contend with man, and not only with 
man, but with principalities and powers, with spiritual wick- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 565 

edness m high places, and with the very gates of hell and its 
legions. And for all his toils and conflicts he has no prom- 
ise of worldly renown or worldly gain ; only his bread and 
water shall be sure here and his reward great in heaven. 
The Master himself left the heaven of heavens, laid aside 
his robes of ineffable light and crown of glory, clothed him- 
self in a body like ours, and established his mission in this 
world of rebels, to emancipate them from their chains and 
subdue them to his reign. He was a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief, and had not where to lay his head ; 
his enemies mocked and slew him, and his friends denied 
and forsook him, and yet he uttered no words of complaint, 
nor did he halt or shrink from the work which he came to 
do. The law of discipleship is self-denial in all things, per- 
severance in following him at all hazards, with the promise 
of poverty here and glory and life hereafter. He said, " If 
any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take 
up his cross and follow me." If need be, the disciple must 
forsake father and mother, wife and children, house and 
home, kindred and country, and consecrate himself to Christ 
and take him as his portion. There is no compromise with 
the world, no time for rest and ease, and no retreat from the 
war; our enemies are many and mighty, and let our watch- 
word be, Victory or death. He who gives his heart and life 
to Christ, and plants his feet in the midst of this wide 
harvest-field, should not hesitate to give him all, to lay all 
down at the feet of his Lord, and bend himself and nerve 
his arm to his work with a settled purpose of mind to take 
no rest till the sun goes down. 

As time, whether long or short, is a point in eternity, and 
as the ocean is made up of drops and particles, so eternity is 
made up of moments, and by this measure it is meted out 
to us, and in its flight it is swifter than thought or a ray of 
light. Time, in its swift flight, demands of us prompt and 
swift improvement or it is gone from us forever. With the 
same swiftness that time flies, hell is being peopled from our 
midst, even from this land of light and truth, where missions 
have long been established, and missionaries been long in 
the midst of the people. One principal reason why missions 



566 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

do not succeed better abroad may be that the missionary fire 
does not burn as it ought to at home, and when it goes 
abroad it neither gives light nor heat, as it had little or none 
at home. The world has been a missionary field from the 
days of Jesus Christ and his apostles throughout all its 
ramifications, and will continue to be such to the end of 
time here. And the Church in all her members is or ought 
to be a missionary society, and all her funds missionary 
funds, and her ministers missionaries. The missionary spirit 
is the spirit of evangelization, and constitutes the light and 
salt of the world, which alone is destined to bless the world 
and christianize all nations. The missionary spirit is just as 
essential in the stated pastor as it is in him who travels 
broadcast over the world or penetrates into heathen lands, 
for destitute of the heavenly flame, he will preach his con- 
gregation into a state of cold and dead formality, and only 
create a nursery for the growth of infidelity. Christ and 
his apostles were missionaries. Their field was for a time 
the land of the Jews, but finally some of them crossed the 
boundaries of Palestine and penetrated into other countries, 
and while the fire burned God's blessing crowned their 
efforts, and the empire of Satan trembled and fell where 
they went as lightning falling from heaven. The most use- 
ful men that have ever lived have been missionaries in heart 
and life, and success has attended them wherever they went 
more than any other men, and this the annals of the Church 
and the world will testify. Ministers and people, to live and 
act well their part, should remember that they are co-workers 
with God, that their station and responsibility are high and 
solemn, and that they have much to do and a short time in 
which to do it, and that the night will come in which no 
man can work. The commission given by Christ to preach 
the gospel to all nations, to every creature, is at once a 
demonstration that the plan being as wide as the world the 
Church was designed to be universal, and that none are to 
be overlooked or passed by, for Christ has commanded that 
repentance and remission of sins shall be preached among all 
nations. But let it be remembered that this is to be done in 
demonstration of the Spirit and with power from on high. 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 567 

One spirit, the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of mis- 
sions, is to pervade the whole Church, to stir and animate all 
hearts, to speak in every sermon, to nerve the arm of every 
Christian soldier; and finally to crown the whole with an 
abundant harvest, is the gift of the Spirit. " Not by might 
or power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." The Church is 
his, the cause of missions is his, and to such as ask the Spirit 
will be sent down with power. Life, and wealth, and time, 
and talents, and learning and influence, are all to be given to 
Christ; sacrifices are to be made, privations endured, labors 
performed, and the battle must be fought, it will be fought, 
and the victory won. It is the missionary spirit that will do 
all this. Animated with the holy fervor, he will go out into 
the highways and hedges, into eveiw nook and corner, and 
attack the stronghold of Satan in city and country, and con- 
tend as a Christian patriot for every inch of territory on this 
globe, and claim it as the right of Prince Emanuel, who 
bought it with his own precious blood. He who goes fully 
into the work as Christ has directed, goes as a messenger 
from God, bearing tidings of good. He goes panoplied for 
the fight, with shield and sword, and the scabbard thrown 
away, and Christ who sent him goes with him and stands by 
him in every conflict, and the Holy Spirit attends with his 
crowning influences. To be successful in this great work, 
our armour must be kept burnished and bright by constant 
use. When once buckled on it should never be laid aside 
until the day of discharge, " for there is no discharge in this 
war until death." 

Why the standard of the Cross has not ere this time been 
planted in every land, and the Church extended her victories 
over all the tribes of earth, should be made a matter of 
serious inquiry by every Christian heart. Century after 
century has passed away, empires and kingdoms have risen 
up and then crumbled into dust, and yet but a small portion 
of the world is Christian at the middle of the nineteenth 
century, and much of that is only so in name. Taking our 
stand on Mount Zion and looking over the missionary field, 
we shall see a wide difference between the missionaries of 
the first century and their success and such as have followed 



568 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

after them. If the like success which attended those had 
attended all since, would not the cross of Christ at this day 
wave in triumph over this entire earth? The difference in 
success is not to be ascribed to the difference in gifts, such as 
miraculous influences from God, for his gifts are always such 
as are necessary and best for the time and circumstances, 
and these will be imparted to such as ask them and make 
the right use of them. " For he will give grace and glory, 
and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk 
uprightly." Nor is the want of success owing to a defi- 
ciency in numbers and the want of facilities, for all these 
abound more than then. What, then, are the hindrances ? 
Is the world more obdurate and wicked than then ? Cer- 
tainly not. Manifestly the hindrances are not in the world, 
but in the Church. If the Church had done her whole duty 
the Lord would long since have subdued her enemies under 
her and made her a praise in all the world. Zion's sons and 
daughters have forgotten her, they have fought with each 
other, they have become time-serving, worldly-minded, self- 
ish, and proud, and loved the world and the praise of men 
more than that of God. Her priests to an alarming extent 
have cared more for the fleece than the flock. They have 
shunned toil and privation and sought a life of ease and 
luxury. And in many places the rich and the great of the 
world have been sought for and the poor passed by. Many 
of the professed ministers of Jesus Christ have no talents or 
call to go out into the hedges and obscure places of this 
world to preach the gospel to the poor. Their mission is 
where things have been made ready to their hands, and 
where the work will be easy and the salary fat, and where 
the people are competent to appreciate their fine parts. 
(Such are fashionable ministers, and their congregations fash- 
ionable Christians, fed with well-prepared sermons, marked 
and dotted, and sent home to their hearts as if wafted by the 
breezes from the regions of eternal snow. Such congrega- 
tions and ministers would veil their faces with a blush of 
shame and contempt at the plain, soul-stirring preaching of 
the Cross, accompanied with a halo of missionary fire, 
kindled by the breath of the Holy Spirit. The main cause 



LECTUKES OF DR. BURROW. 569 

of the tardiness of Zion is owing to a want of the true mis- 
sionary spirit. The same Spirit which commenced the. work 
and animated the hearts of the first ministers of the Cross 
will carry it forward to its consummation, and the time has 
never been, and never will be, when it can be dispensed with. 
Missionaries, itinerant men, sometimes called circuit-riders, 
cannot be had in the field at this day. Why is this so ? Are 
there no Macedonian cries from the multitude ? Surely 
there are many even in this land of steady habits. They 
come up like the sound of many waters, like solemn appeals 
from Calvarj-, mingled with the groans of Him who expiated 
our sins there. Why, then, are these calls not heeded? The 
answer is : First, there is too much work to do and but 
little pay ; secondly, the station is too low and the talents 
too high for such a life of toil and privation; and, finally, 
the hallowed flame of missionary zeal is wanting and burns 
not in the heart. 

Such influences in the Church have done more to paralyze 
her energies than a host of external foes, and yet they have 
been fostered there while preying upon her very vitals and 
drinking up her life-drops. The origin of these evils has been 
ascribed to certain causes, such as the want of a competent 
support, an open door for usefulness, etc. ; while others have 
blamed literary institutions and theological training as hav- 
ing no little share in blunting the zeal of the sons of the 
Church and turning their attention to higher stations. As 
to an ample support and an open door, Christ has opened the 
door as wide as the world, and has pledged himself to go 
with them to the ends of the world, and no man who trusts 
him and does well will starve or fare worse than his Master 
did. And as to college training, if that has resulted in such 
a blight and curse, the mischief is not a necessary evil, but 
an abuse of what may well be considered a blessing. That 
the sons of the Church have contracted habits of extrava- 
gance and pride and had their zeal for God chilled at college 
is not denied, but the evil complained of is justly chargeable 
upon the Church herself, and mainly upon the pulpit. It is 
mournfully true that our sons in the Church who are to suc- 
ceed us in the ministry, are fed and nurtured with a lifeless 
37 



570 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

form of words, both at home and abroad, and made to believe 
that religion consists in a round of formalities, and that the 
world is to be converted by the wisdom of men. The Church 
and her sons have a right to the wisdom of the world, sanc- 
tified by the grace of God, but they must have the wisdom 
that cometh from above, and then an humble heart filled 
with holy fire from God's altar to prepare them for his 
work. 

The work of the ministry not only contemplates a form of 
sound words to be presented to the people for their instruc- 
tion and edification, but the truth of the Lord is to be 
spoken in demonstration of the Spirit and power, and all his 
sacred work in the Church should be done with holy zeal. 
A work so purely spiritual can never be done with success 
and meet the divine approbation when attempted with life- 
less formality. Holy unction from God is absolutely neces- 
sary in order to success. This in all ages and places has 
been the secret of ministerial and Church success, and let 
this fact be remembered in colleges and theological semina- 
ries, while under a course of preparation for labor in the 
great harvest-field. The spirit of true piety must be pro- 
moted there, and the fervor of God's love in the heart must 
be kept burning there by the instrumentality of instructors. 
This overlooked and neglected has brought reproach upon 
institutions and efforts to prepare men for the service of the 
Church, and their preparation has appeared to be useless, while 
others with less preparation and more zeal and heavenly- 
mindedness, have gone far in advance of them and been 
much more useful. Missionaries with cold hearts should 
never be sent forth into a cold-hearted world. This is like 
bringing ice in contact with ice, which can never be expected 
to melt and mould the nations of the earth into living Chris- 
tians. Many of the converts under such a ministry are more 
like statues of ice than living beings, created and moved by 
the life-giving breath of the Almighty. This frigidity, 
which often emanates from the schools of the prophets, 
while it is charged upon the schools, is more justly charge- 
able upon the miserable policy of the instructors, who fill 
the minds of their sons in the ministry with prejudice against 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 571 

what they are pleased to stigmatize as fanaticism, and so to 
chill their hearts and localize their feelings as to prepare 
them to look out for some rich congregation or the school- 
room, where they are imprisoned for life. 

Here I may with propriety speak of regular pastors. That 
the Church has need of the stated and regular labors of min- 
isters is not questioned. For permanency, the constant 
ministrations of a pastor are of vast importance and almost 
indispensably necessary, and no Church can well prosper 
without such connections and labors. But this is by no 
means all that the Church needs. Itinerant men are of equal 
importance, and essentially necessary for the extension of 
the kingdom of Christ in a world so diversified and scattered 
as this. The gospel ought to be preached without delay in 
every neighborhood and village as well as in the populous 
cities, and this part of the work ought to be done by the 
very best and most talented of our ministers, such as Barna- 
bas and Paul, who, by the ordering of the Holy Ghost, were 
separated and set apart for this purpose. Then as the work 
advances let every conquest gained over the kingkom of 
darkness be manned by heavenly-minded pastors, who care 
for the flock, and who, being imbued with a divine unction, 
■"count not their lives dear unto themselves, so that they 
may finish their course, and the ministry they have received 
from the Lord Jesus Christ." Neither can the stated pastor 
nor the itinerant minister be dispensed with by any people 
without great peril to the cause of truth. And while I call 
attention to the pastoral connectian with congregations on 
the one part, I beg and plead with the Church, by the mer- 
cies of God, that there be no abandonment of the itinerant 
corps and missionary enterprise, for as this declines in the 
army of Israel, she is shorn of her strength and despoiled of 
her glory. 

On ministerial support, it appears to me useless to multiply 
words, as this duty is at once so plain as to commend itself 
to every sober mind. The Church of Jesus Christ, though 
composed of ministers and lay members, is one — one body, 
one household, one building, and all these are members one 
of another. " Where one member suffers, all the members 



572 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

suffer with it," and where one member rejoices, they all 
rejoice with it. The influence, whatever it may be, runs 
through the whole body, and calls each member into sym- 
pathy with each and all; and as one member is united to 
Christ and tenderly regarded by him, so are they all. They 
are God's husbandry and mutual helpers one of another in 
the glorious cause of Christ, and wherever and whenever the 
Lord makes it the solemn duty of one to preach the gospel r 
that is his work and his only work through life, and God 
will require this at his hands. But there is another side to 
this question and another obligated party in this organized 
family, under an obligation no less solemn and weighty to 
sustain God's ministers than that which obligates them to 
minister to his flock, and this obligation may not be con- 
nived at by either without incurring the displeasure of the 
Master. Ministers, like other members of the Church, 
doubtless in some instances require much more to sustain 
their pride than to support their families, and to the detri- 
ment of religion, raise their children in idleness and extrav- 
agance, which is an evil under the sun, and has no little 
agency in cripling gospel aid. Let this abuse be corrected 
by them under the abiding impression that we sin against 
God when Ave waste his funds in feasting our lusts. It is a 
good man's duty to deal sparingly with the Lord's money, 
and persevere in his work without bitter complaints, when 
he has as many or more comforts than his Lord and his first 
ministers had, and perhaps is doing much less good. 

But what shall we say of the lay members of the Church ? 
Have they any license from the Lord to consume upon their 
lusts and pride that over which he has made them stewards? 
This, however, is often done, and their dues are withheld 
from God, while they condemn similar conduct in the clergy, 
as though the Lord would approve in them what he con- 
demns in his ministers. And to sustain the pride and luxu- 
riousness of themselves and families, members of the Church r 
even at this day, rob God of the tithes and offerings which 
are due him, and subject his cause, the price of his blood, to 
the blackness of famine. If the crumbs which fall from the 
tables of the Church in profusion to feed the greedy dogs of 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 573 

lust, were righteously husbanded, it would afford an ample 
salary for all the doing ones of the Church; and that which 
is wasted by a profligate priesthood and laity would create a 
larger fund than has ever been found in the Lord's treasury 
since Christ suffered on the cross. We are all responsible to 
God, both ministers and private members, for the earthly 
substance that comes into our hands, and are under obliga- 
tions to make a religious use of it, as we are obligated to 
love and reverence God and love the brethren. Taking this 
view of duty, it must be manifest that all who withhold what 
God claims at their hands are guilty, and those who lavish 
upon their lusts what they owe to God are doubly guilty ; 
they are guilty, in Scripture language, of robbing God and 
also guilty of making an idol of their own persons. The 
Lord says, " Ye have robbed me, even this whole nation" — 
robbed me in withholding tithes and offerings. He who 
made it the duty of some men to preach the gospel, made it 
no less the duty of all others to afford them a reasonable 
support, for he ordained that they who preach the gospel 
shall live of the gospel. Ministers are bound to preach the 
gospel and the people are bound by the same law to sustain 
them. According to the law of God which is to govern the 
household of faith, those who sow spiritual things to the 
people have a right to reap some of their carnal things. 
" They which minister about holy things, live of the things 
of the temple. . . . Even so hath the Lord ordained that 
they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel." — 
1 Cor. ix. 13, 14. If there rests a woe, therefore, on the min- 
isters of Jesus Christ who preach not, there must be a woe 
upon the Church if she does not support the gospel. By 
Heaven's own declaration we are assured that he who seeth 
his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compas- 
sion against him, hath not the love of God in him. He 
turns away from his own household and refuses a cup of 
cold water to Jesus Christ, and has no bowels of compassion 
towards his Lord who redeemed him with his life-drops. 
He that turns away from a needy disciple, and especially 
from a faithful minister, turns away from the Master of the 
household. " Forasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 



574 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." It is 
the religions duty of all to provide for their own household,, 
and he who does it not has denied the faith and is worse than 
an infidel. This sentiment seems to please those who lore 
the world more than they love God, and they fly to the 
passage alluded to for relief whenever their consciences 
goad them for withholding the Lord's due. But it has as 
clear a reference to the Church — the household of the faith — 
as to a man's own private family, and stands connected with a 
bill of instructions given to members of the Church, includ- 
ing ministers and people, to direct their conduct to each 
other. u But if any provide not for his own, and especially 
for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is 
worse than an infidel." — 1 Tim. v. 8. It is the law of Jesus 
Christ that his household love each other, and that they all 
unite in bearing the burdeus of the Church, and this is part 
of the household of faith, and he who does not provide for 
the Church and aid in her support, has denied the faith, his 
kindred, and his Lord. 



LECTURES OP DR. BURROAV. 575 



LECTURE XXXI.— ON" DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 



This subject presents to onr limited capacities a vast ocean 
which, while it is seen to be a reality, cannot be compre- 
hended in ail its parts and operations. Yet is it most encour- 
aging and cheering to all helpless, dependent creatures, and 
especially so to the race of man, to know that the great 
eternal Father of spirits presides everywhere, and extends 
his parental superintendence wisely, graciously, and right- 
eously over all things. There are only two classes of beings 
and things known to us, righteous and unrighteous, good 
and evil; and this distinction of beings and things has been 
made known to us by the revelation of such laws and regu- 
lations as exhibit the true qualities of each. There is posi- 
tive good and relative good, positive evil and relative evil, 
which may be classed into moral and natural good and evil. 
By positive good, we are to understand that which is good 
in and of itself; by relative good, that which is so in relation 
to other beings and things. In the highest sense, there is 
but one positive good in the universe, and that is God. 
" There is none good but one, that is God." — Matt. xix. 17. 
The superintendence of this Being is what we call provi- 
dence. He is both positively and relatively good, and being 
immutable, he can neither plan nor execute any evil what- 
ever — all must be good. By this rule we may know his 
plans by his works, and the quality of both by his immutably 
perfect nature. Providence can have no rule* or law outside 
and apart from his own holy nature to direct him in all his 
plans and works. Once righteous and good, forever so. The 
relative good which he does throughout his vast empire has 
a relation to himself and to all under his administration, and 
flows from his positive goodness. Positive good in creatures 



r 



576 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

must be either by creation and preservation or by redemp- 
tion and sanctificatiou, and must be understood in a qualified 
sense, as mutable and liable to change. But it never can be 
changed from good to evil by the power that produced it, as 
this would be against his nature and will; but it may be 
changed by him from evil to good, when done in harmony 
with the attributes of Providence and that freedom of will 
with which he has endued the creature. And upon the same 
principle the good in creatures may become positive in such 
a sense as never to change and fall from a state of upright- 
ness, as in the case of angels who kept their first estate, or 
such of our race as actively receive by faith the positive 
good provided and offered by Providence, which is Christ 
our life, the true and abiding seed. " Whosoever is born of 
God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: 
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." — 1 John 
in. 9. As to positive evil, this is also to be understood in a 
qualified sense. There is an eternal good, but there is no 
eternal necessary evil, which was so in and of itself. There 
is but one being who is eternal, and he is good, and there are 
no eternal things, for they have all been produced by him in 
time, and all good when they came from his creative hand, 
whether beings or things. How, then, came evil into the 
empire of Jehovah, if he did not create it, and it cannot be 
self-existent ? Good and evil must consist in the nature of 
things or the quality of actions, and often in both. But as 
all beings were created under the supreme law and will of 
the God of the universe, the} 7 had a morality of nature, a 
moral quality, which was good. This good would have been 
positive if no government had been exercised over them and 
no obedience required, but there could have been no quality 
of action, any more than there is in a block of marble or the 
golden vessels of Solomon's temple, and they would have 
been no more fit subjects of rewards or punishment. It may 
be assumed and fairly maintained that as there is no eternal 
evil in the universe, and Providence could not produce it in 
harmony with his will and attributes, that it could only come 
into existence by disobedience and a violation of the supreme 
will and law by creatures. Moral evil is a transgression of 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 577 

the moral law ; it is an act against the whole Godhead — 
decrees, laws, will, and nature, all. Such a thing as moral 
evil cannot possibly be willed by the Holy One ; it is some- 
thing opposed to his will — an act against it. If he wills a 
thing it must be good, for he cannot will evil. Moreover, 
evil could not have been if there had been no such perfec- 
tions as belong essentially to G-od, nor then if there had 
been no such creatures as men and angels, made and placed 
under the universal standard of moral rectitude, endued with 
the most perfect and well-balanced freedom of will of which 
creatures are capable. There must be no defect in purity of 
nature and none in freedom of will, or there will be, as there 
must be, a release from moral obligations and the weight of 
responsibility. 

And again : In so far as Providence wills, decrees, or by 
his superintendence plans, works, or in any way influences 
his creatures to evil (were such a thing possible), there is a 
release from responsibility in the same ratio. All responsible 
creatures must not only be free in reality and capable of 
voluntary choice, but they must feel within themselves a con- 
sciousness of it, or they never can feel a consciousness of 
either guilt or innocence. Who does not feel certain of his 
own being? — that he has within him memory and thought? 
"No one doubts this. We have the same evidence and the 
same consciousness within that we have the power of free 
volition, that our actions are our own, and that we are 
responsible for them, that we have of our existence, and 
doubt the one as little as the other. This consciousness 
within us responds to the law and testimony in conscious 
guilt or innocence in relation to all our actions, whether 
good or bad. But who ever blamed himself for the evil 
deeds of others ? or for that over which he had no -control 
and could not avoid? We may regret that the innocent and 
unsuspecting have fallen by the hand of the highwayman, or 
that it was not in our power to prevent it, but we can feel no 
conscious guilt. That is impossible. And we may desire to 
have mightier intellectual powers, even like those of mighty 
angels, but never can attach any blame to ourselves because 
God did not see fit to bestow them upon us. How many of 






578 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

our race have regretted that this world is liable to so many 
sorrows and death itself on the account of the sin of our 
federal head, while none have ever felt any remorse of con- 
science for the sin of Adam ? But all must and do feel 
guilty for their own voluntary sins. For what other men 
do, or for what Providence does as an absolute sovereign and 
ruler, we are not responsible in any way, and never can be 
called to account, but will have to answer for our own deeds. 
As sin is not eternal, and Providence did not create or intro- 
duce it at any time, it is the work of responsible beings — of 
free volition. Moral evil commenced there, and in that way 
it progresses, but it never becomes positive and unalterable 
in the soul but by a voluntary rejection of the gracious, free 
tender of the full and complete remedy w T hich the Lord Jesus 
Christ provided for the world. 

It may be well to remark of Providence that he is not only 
essentially good, but he is relatively so, and it is his nature 
to do good to all his creatures, and he delights in their hap- 
piness but not in their misery. It is his nature to do good 
and delight in it and to hate evil. " The Lord is righteous 
in all his ways, and holy in all his works." — Psa. cxlv. 17. 
"Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and 
from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity." — Job 
xxxiv. 10. What was creation at first in its primitive purity 
but an act of Providence? This, together with the gift of 
his only Son, the descent of the Holy Spirit, and all other 
mercies, are the gifts and blessings of kind Providence. Can 
it be possible that this same Providence ordained and 
brought about all this iniquity by his own supreme will and 
agency? Some good people have so thought, and that he 
did it that he might display his glory in the work of 
redemption, and thereby accomplish a greater good than 
could otherwise be accomplished. This might be possible if 
it did not present Providence as the author of the mischief 
in the first place, and, in the second place, millions of undy- 
ing souls have gone and will go to hell by that stroke of 
Providence. The glory of the work of redemption appears 
to be lost, from the fact that it would not have been neces- 
sary had he not made it so, and in that case all would have 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 579 

been forever happy, and none would have been locked up in 
eternal despair. The idea that Providence made countless 
millions of rational, immortal beings and doomed them all 
to sin against his holiness, and part of them doomed to suffer 
the untold sorrows of an eternal hell before he made them, 
and that he made them for that very purpose, appointed all 
the means for its accomplishment, and superintends the 
whole operation to its final consummation, and redeems the 
balance, and all for his own glory, is a marvelous providence, 
if it be a providence. That such sentiments are held is not 
to be doubted. It is even so, as we shall see. " The 
almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness 
of God so far manifest themselves in his providence, that it 
extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of 
angels and men, and that not by a bare permission, but such 
as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, 
and otherwise ordering and governing of them, in a mani- 
fold dispensation, to his own holy ends ; yet so as the sinful- 
ness thereof proceecleth only from the creature, and not from 
God; who being most holy and righteous, neither is, nor 
can be the author or approver of sin." The question comes 
up before the mind, Was it possible for any that were 
doomed to sin and death to escape, or for such as were 
ordained to life to be lost? There can be no change. But 
who did all this ? We are are told that the most wise and 
holy Providence did it all. He ordered and governed all the 
sins of all men and angels, and then punished some of them 
in hell for their sins. Then we are told he who did all this is 
neither the author nor approver of at least a part of his own 
providential doings. As to the authorship, there need be no 
dispute, when we are told that Providence (God) did it all. 
That is the point any way against which I enter my protest. 
First, because we have no testimony from Providence that 
such is his work, but to the contrary. And, secondly, 
because he is holy and just, and this does not appear to be 
the work of such a being, but of one who is neither holy 
nor just. And, in the third place, it cannot be possible that 
Providence can do anything of which he does not approve. 
It would be more than a mystery that a kind father should 



580 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

build a house and put his family of children into it, and set 
lire to it with his own hand, or cause it to be done by his 
ordering and superintendence, for the very purpose of 
destroying part of them that he might have the honor of 
saving the other part. But, worst of all, should it then be 
said they did it themselves and the punishment was just and 
righteous. No one could be at a, loss to decide on such a 
case. All judicious persons would blame the father for his 
cruelty to his family, and censure him as the murderer of one 
part and give him no glory for the rescue of the other part. 

There is no necessity for running into such extremes by 
ascribing everything which transpires in the universe to 
Providence. The position is wrong and contradicts itself, 
and never can result in any good whatever. If, when the 
Lord made this moral world, it had been as some men sup- 
pose a great machine, moved by the hand that made it, and 
according to his good will and pleasure, it could no less meet 
his approbation now than when he first put it in motion and 
pronounced it very good. The truth is, Providence is either 
displeased with his own works or there is much comes to 
pass continually which he has not ordered, for there is much 
which he hates. Highway robberies, midnight assassina- 
tions, perjury, and theft, and Cain murdering his brother, 
and the Popes of Rome torturing and murdering the 
saints of the Most High ; these and such like deeds are the 
works of wicked men, prompted by the devil, and not 
ordered and prompted by our Heavenly Father. There are 
some things done by devils, some by wicked men, and some 
by good men and Providence, but these all bear the impress 
of the author, and no one is responsible for the doings of the 
other. Why the Almighty created such a vast variety of 
beings and things we cannot tell, or why he created men and 
angels, only that his design was wise and good and could not 
be otherwise. That all creation should have been placed 
under the same laws and regulations is neither right nor 
true, nor is the same exercise of providence requisite and 
right in relation to all indiscriminately. One part is only 
capable of acting as acted upon. Another part is capable 
of acting by virtue of animal life, but is destitute of ration- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 581 

ality, whose actions can have no moral quality, consequently 
must be irresponsible and not subject to moral government. 
These all being under laws and regulations that are absolute, 
and controlled by an overruling Providence according to his 
good will and pleasure, never offend against the ruling hand 
and are never censured by him. Providence clothes and feeds 
such as have need, though they have neither store-house nor 
barn. In all this department there is no consciousness of 
good and evil, no regret for the past, neither hope nor dread 
of the future, nor can there be any where such laws and 
providences reign with absolute sway. Nor will it alter the 
case in the least degree to place rational beings under the 
moral code requiring of them obedience, while at the same 
time their actions are as absolutely controlled by the sover- 
eign will of Providence as the rains and lightnings of 
heaven. Such a train of providences would disturb the 
whole government of the universe and wind up in a farce — 
"that whatever is, is right." Decrees and providence can 
never be separated as it relates to operations and final results. 
Where one is absolute the other is absolute, and whatever is-, 
absolutely decreed is as absolutely accomplished by Provi- 
dence, and the intelligent universe has no more to do with 
it, except to submit to it, than with the reins of govern- 
ment in the sovereign hand of the King of heaven. Abso- 
lute decrees and absolute providence, therefore, amount to 
the same in the end, and those who hold the one of course 
hold the other. There are doubtless absolute decrees and 
providences in relation to some things, but not all things, 
and these are regulated in righteousness and justice, in view 
of divine rights and works as well as in regard to the respon- 
sibility of rational beings. Permissive decrees and permis- 
sive providences must be associated together, and if they 
mean anything different from what is meant by absolute 
decrees and providences, must signify free agency and 
accountability, and, as a matter of course, freedom from the 
reign and rule of absolute decrees and providences. If this 
be what is meant, free agency is a better phrase than per- 
missive decrees, as it better conveys the idea of that freedom 
of volition which the Creator granted to his accountable 



582 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

creatures, and neither took away nor bound up in everlast- 
ing chains. But if this be not what is meant by permissive 
decrees, and providence associated with it, then the phrase 
is a solemn farce, and has no signification other than that of 
absolute decrees and providence, and the use of the term in 
such case is deceptious.and calculated to mislead. Let it be 
remembered that when it is said that God decreed to permit 
his creatures to act voluntarily, the phrase decreed to permit 
is to be understood when explained by those who use it, 
only to signify liberty to act in one direct line, in perfect 
conformity with absolute decrees but never against them. 
Or if they mean a permission to act contrary to such decrees, 
it can only mean liberty to do that which is impossible and 
to strive to overthrow unalterable decrees, for the accom- 
plishment of which an Almighty Providence stands pledged 
and will perform. Then, the sentiment may be summed up 
in these words: God gives to his creatures permission to do 
what he has ordained they shall, and his providence will 
bring to it pass. JSTow, if this is not a true version of permis- 
sive decrees and providence, but the advocates of the doc- 
trine intend to teach the doctrine of free agency, just let 
them tell us that all things were not unalterably decreed. 
The sentiment that Providence does all things and brings all 
things to pass, makes it very convenient for some men to 
excuse themselves and place all their sins to the account of 
Providence, when Providence is clear. 

Providence has been divided into immediate and mediate, 
ordinary and extraordinary, common and special, universal 
and particular. Nothing, however, is gained by these dis- 
tinctions, as it can only mean after all the workings of the 
same hand, either with or without means, and to a greater 
or less extent. Providence, while he has not introduced 
moral evil, has not absolutely prevented it, which, perhaps, 
could only have been done by either not granting volition 
and trial, or the annihilation of it and of the moral govern- 
ment of the universe of mind. Be this as it maj T , I have 
shown that all moral evil is opposed to his nature and right- 
eous will, and is not the work of his providence. But it 
does comport with the nature and will of God to guard and 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 583 

defend the rights of his throne, to comfort, defend, sustain, 
and in every way to bless his loyal subjects; and in many 
things to restrain Satan and wicked men, to overrule evil, 
and to punish all rebels against his government, who will 
not submit to his authority and accept offered mercy. As 
God cannot lie or do wrong in any way, he must necessarily 
do right through all eternity. And he could not with 
honor, in harmony with his nature and government, force 
the will of man in any way to rebel against him, and then 
justly punish him for it. It may be stated and fairly main- 
tained that Providence cannot force the will of a responsible 
subject of his government to forsake sin and enter heaven 
through Christ, for as he cannot force the will in one way, 
he cannot righteously do it in the other. But Providence 
can righteously provide salvation for all, and tender it to all, 
upon such conditions and with such aid in the way of divine 
influence as is adapted to their condition to make acceptance 
possible, and righteously save such as do accept on that self- 
same condition forever. On the other side, all those who 
have this gracious offer of salvation and the aids above 
named, and will not accept, but do voluntarily reject it, 
Providence cannot righteously save them, but must in justice 
and for the preservation of his authority and honor, send 
them to perdition ; and is more honored in the sentence, 
when it was their own free volition that rejected, than he 
could be to save them against it. However, on the same 
hypothesis that Providence could involve the world in sin on 
absolute principles contrary to free volition, on the like 
strange and unaccountable principles, he might save them 
all, irrespective of volition ; and it seems he would be right- 
eously bound to do it, for if the first act which involved 
them should turn out to be unjust, to make reparation could 
be nothing but right. But as Providence did not involve 
the world, it was great love and mercy that redeemed volun- 
tary rebels and offers them life so freely. This one act of 
Providence ought to be and is a sufficient index to point out 
the whole course of Providence to all reflecting minds, and 
to convince them that he has no pleasure in the death of any 
of the race, and works nothing against their salvation, but 



584 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

all he can consistently with his character and government 
for it. Now, by whatever principle Providence works at 
one time and one place, he works at all times and in all 
places, "for he is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." 
Once good and kind, forever so ; and if good and kind to 
one, he must he to all, "for he is no respecter of persons." 
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." But it is said that Providence has not 
dealt alike and bestowed his gifts alike upon all this world; 
that he has bestowed more of his munificence upon some 
than others, and cast their lots in this world under circum- 
stances widely different. This may appear to be so to some 
minds in respect to some things, but it cannot, and I am well 
persuaded that it is not true in matters of any great impor- 
tance. Providence has equalized and balanced this world 
much better than many have supposed, in all respects, and 
especially in matters of great moment. He causes his sun 
to rise upon the good and bad, and sends his rains upon the 
just and unjust, and deals out the blessings of earth broad- 
cast. Much of the difference, however, which our eyes 
behold in earthly things is owing to the providence or 
improvidence of earth's children, and not attributable to our 
Heavenly Father. We do much ourselves to make our lots 
easy or hard in life, by our improvement or misimprovement 
of the gifts of Providence scattered over the earth for our 
benefit, and when overtaken with evil, complain of Provi- 
dence and blame him with partiality. That some are rich 
and others poor is true, but which of the two conditions is 
preferable is difficult to decide. The rich have their sorrows 
as well as the poor, and neither can have riches nor suffer 
poverty long, and certainly the rich will not be the better 
for their riches nor the poor the worse for their poverty 
when they come to die. Heaven is all at last, and neither 
can enter there without holiness, nor can they obtain that 
without divine grace. Now, if Providence has provided 
that benefit for all, and placed it within the grasp of all, 
then all are on a perfect equality in relation to the true 
riches, and none can complain of Providence, whatever may 



LECTUKES OF DR. BURROW. 585 

be their destiny in the world to come. This sentiment has 
to some minds an alarming tendency, though I can see 
nothing calculated to alarm any one in the doctrine of a pos- 
sible salvation for all this world. Certainly it ought not if it 
is consistent with kind Providence and sustained by the 
Bible and reason. Peter once doubted this same truth, but 
when God convinced him he opened his mouth and said, 
" Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons : 
but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh right- 
eousness, is accepted with him." — Acts x. 34, 35. This was 
the first time that Peter perceived that precious truth, yet it 
was truth, and an old truth, before it was discovered to him. 
It is just as true and as old as the Bible or the plan of salva- 
tion, and belongs to the same corporation, which has never 
been altered. Cornelius and some of that Gentile congrega- 
tion had been blessed by Providence before ever Peter went 
there, and I dare not doubt the goodness of the same kind 
Father in heathen lands, even to this day, and before mis- 
sionaries go there. 

No enlightened Christian at the present day can well 
assume the position that the Holy Spirit only works, and 
that a possible salvation is limited to the circulation of the 
written Word, as this sentiment must necessarily exclude all 
infants and minors from heaven, unless they can be saved 
without sanctification, which will not be assumed. One 
thing is certain, if they are impure by nature they must be 
sanctified by divine grace or they cannot be admitted into 
heaven. If, therefore, it is admitted that all such as die in 
infancy are saved, tbe question is settled that Providence 
does works of mercy and sanctification in all lands and 
nations. This truth being settled, it will not be denied that 
all the infants that perished at the overthrow of Sodom and 
Gomorrah were sanctified and saved, while the wicked adults 
were lost, except Lot and his family, who were shielded by 
the protecting hand of Providence. And what is true in 
this one case, is so in all similar providences. That it was 
just and right for God to destroy those people cannot be 
controverted, but that it was right to destroy unoffending 
infants has been questioned, and ought to be if Providence 
38 






586 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

did not save them, but as he did do this, it was an act of 
kindness to take the innocent from the sorrows of life, while 
justice was meted out to the guilty. The righteousness of 
the Lord in laying his hand upon individuals and upon 
cities and nations for their wickedness, in punishing them, 
can no more he questioned than the principle of justice or 
the final judgment. The principle is the same. This prin- 
ciple always regards a future state and the opportunities 
afforded in this life to prepare for the next. Where there 
are no means provided and no possibility of salvation, there 
is no possibility of righteous condemnation and damnation, 
for as no one can be guilty of that which was impossi- 
ble — of rejecting a mere nonentity, and made so by Provi- 
dence — so just condemnation on that principle is impossible 
and only ideal. The principle is, where Providence gives 
nothing and offers nothing, he requires nothing and con- 
demns no one. God has said that his ways are equal. "Yet 
saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. 
O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your 
ways unequal? Therefore I will judge you." — Eze. xviii. 
29, 30. Here it is seen at once that justice and judgment 
are founded upon the equal ways of the Lord, whose pro- 
visions and tenders of grace are to all, and justice will be 
administered according to that scale. And all the ways of 
Providence will be seen to have been equal when all things 
shall have been wound up in the great day. Some men, and 
even some Christians, charge Providence, as did Israel, that 
his ways are not equal, but when they come into the sanctu- 
ary and understand the matter, they will see that the Lord is 
right and themselves wrong. Providence has conferred at 
different times and in divers ways favors upon some men 
which he did not upon others; sometimes as a token of their 
worth and sometimes for the benefit of others, in carrying 
out his plan of mercy. The apostles were called, chosen, or 
elected to honor and toil for the good of the Church and the 
world, but many others, less honored by marks of distinc- 
tion, were equally the children of God and as certain of 
heaven. In consummating the plan of salvation for the 
world, God made choice of faithful Abraham as the father 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 587 

of the faithful, rather than Job or Melchisedec, but they 
were no less interested in the plan. A_nd in the family of 
Isaac, Jacob, rather than Esau, was chosen, in whose family 
the Saviour of the world was to be born according to the 
flesh. This we are told was according to election — it was 
election. But what was the design of it? and who was 
chosen ? Jacob was elected. He was elected to a station in 
consummating a plan for the benefit of the world, that 
Christ by the grace of God should taste death for every man; 
for both Jacob and Esau, as well as all others. God left not 
the great plan of redemption to the blindness and uncer- 
tainty of chance, but made it certain by the gift of his Son, 
who should be born of a woman, made under the law, to 
redeem them that were under its curse; and he even chose 
the family, and then the particular branch of that family, 
down to Jacob and the tribe of Judah, in which Messiah 
should be born, that this purpose of grace, according to elec- 
tion, should stand. " Whose are the fathers, and of whom 
as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God 
blessed forever. Amen." — Rom. ix. 5. Then we are told 
that this was all done, and that Christ was made a little 
lower than the angels for the suffering of death, that he by 
the grace of God should taste death for every man — for both 
Jacob and Esau, Jews and Gentiles. But that this was not 
the personal election of Jacob and his posterity to eternal 
life, and the reprobation of Esau and his to eternal death, is 
certain from the fact that many who were called Israel were 
not Israelites indeed, but perished in their sins, while many 
of the Gentiles who were not of the family of Jacob and the 
descendants of Abraham became the spiritual seed of Abra- 
ham, and the elect of God in a personal sense by faith in 
Christ. This could not, however, be true if, as some sup- 
pose, the choosing of Jacob and the rejection of Esau had 
been personal election aud reprobation, for in that case it 
would have made the salvation of all Israelites at least 
certain, and the reprobated branch of Abraham's family, 
together with all others of mankind, equally as certain of 
destruction. But we see that instead of that choice of Jacob 
instead of Esau being personal election, it was the sovereign, 



588 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

gracious plan of Providence to provide salvation for the 
whole world, and as truly for the Edomites and all the Gen- 
tiles as for Jacob and his descendants. Therefore God says, 
" I will call them my people, which were not my people ; and 
her heloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to 
pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are 
not my people, there shall they be called the children of the 
living God." — Rom. ix. 25, 26. The personal election of 
both Jews and Gentiles, in conformity with this plan, is the 
same ; and while salvation was provided equally for all, none 
are the children of God and personally elected unto life but 
such as make their calling and election sure by faith in 
Christ. " What shall we say then ? That the Gentiles, 
which followed not after righteousness, have attained to 
righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But 
Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath 
not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Be- 
cause they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the 
works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling- 
stone." — Rom.. ix. 30-32. "For ye are all the children of 
God by faith iu Christ Jesus." — Gal. in. 26. If this is a 
correct exposition of the ninth chapter of Romans, and all 
that connection, which has been so much relied on by such 
as hold the doctrine of unconditional election and reproba- 
tion, it must certainly be so of all such like phraseology in 
the whole Bible; and manifestly disproves the dogma of a 
partial providence, and shows at once that the plan was 
sovereign and gracious, but was for all, while none of all, 
were the people and children of God personally elected unto 
life, nor ever will be, except by faith in Jesus Christ. And, 
moreover, it proves that faith which receives Christ is not 
the sovereign, absolute gift of Providence any more than 
life itself, but is the voluntary act of the heart, freely exer- 
cised under the light of the Holy Spirit. " For with the 
heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the 
mouth, confession is made unto salvation." — Rom. x. 10. 
" The Lord's ways are equal." " He that believeth shall be 
saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." When 
the redeemed race of man are called according to God's pur- 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 589 

pose, they must believe according to his purpose, and he 
will save them according to his purpose ; but if they believe 
not, it is his purpose, so declared, to damn them, and he will 
fail in neither. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the 
godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the 
day of judgment to be punished." — 2 Peter n. 9. Daniel 
was delivered from the lions, his faithful companions from 
the heated furnace, David from the hand of Saul, Peter and 
Paul from prison, and faithful Christians from the destructive 
overthrow of Jerusalem, while the wicked perished in the 
general wreck. But one thing ought to be noticed here. 
Providence does not at all times preserve the lives of his 
people from the hand of the wicked. Multitudes of them 
have fallen by the cruel hand of persecution. But when 
wicked men carry out their hellish purposes, contrary to the 
righteous will of God, who, while he has not decreed abso- 
lutely that they shall or shall not, but holds them responsible 
for their deeds, he does take care of their souls, and abso- 
lutely prevents injury to them and gathers them home to 
glory and rest. In all such cases he may or may not pre- 
serve the lives of his people by his providence and do right, 
and not interfere with the agency of his creatures ; for 
where he does not prevent the stroke of the wicked, he saves 
the righteous in the true sense, and where he prevents their 
hellish purpose and preserves the lives of his people, as in 
the case of Daniel, his companions, Peter, and Paul, he 
holds their murderers as guilty as if they had perpetrated 
their purposed deed of blood, because it was in their hearts 
to kill, and they committed murder in their hearts. So we 
see that responsibility is not disturbed either way. When 
God purposed to punish the wicked Canaanites by the hand 
ol Israel, and then the Christ-rejecting Israelites for their 
sins when they were ripe for destruction, it matters not by 
what instrumentality, he in all cases takes care of the right- 
eous in the true sense ; and when thousands of unoffending 
infants fall by the sword, as was the case both among the 
Canaanites and Jews, Providence saves them all by the 
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. 
When Providence moved his hand for the deliverance of 






590 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Israel from bondage and cruel oppression in Egypt, it was 
not only his plan to lead his people out with a high hand 
and an outstretched arm, but to punish those wicked and 
hardened wretches in several ways. But the great crowd of 
Egyptians which were overthrown in the Red sea were hard- 
ened adults, murderers in their hearts. Providence lead his 
people out, but Pharaoh with his men of war pursued them 
with the intent to kill, and the hand that lead and protected 
the former overthrew the latter with a dreadful overthrow. 
From the brief mention of Pharaoh by Paul, some Christians 
have come to the conclusion that the Lord made him for 
destruction, and then hardened his heart and fitted him in 
that way for hell. It may, however, be well to pause and 
think before coming to such rash conclusions. The only 
way in which it can in any sense be said that God hardens 
the heart of any one is taught most clearly in revelation, 
thus: He has provided and affords the means of grace. 
When these are resisted again and again he may and often 
does withdraw them finally, never to tender them any more. 
The consequence of resistance and the withdrawal of these 
influences is hardness and destruction, and when any people 
so far resist God as to be given up, he may send upon them 
strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they may 
be damned, because they believed not the truth but had 
pleasure in unrighteousness. (See 2 Thess. n. 11, 12.) The 
Egyptians were not only like others, favored with the light 
that lighteth every man that comet h into the world, but 
from the time of Joseph until Israel departed from Egypt, 
they were more or less instructed in the knowledge of the 
God of Jacob, but they resisted the Holy One, and might 
have been destroyed sooner than they were but God sus- 
pended the stroke for a time, and then poured his fury upon 
a large army of wicked adults at the Red sea while he yet 
spared the balance of the nation. But that Providence 
hardened the hearts of Pharaoh and the Egyptians absolutely 
is a rash charge against God and a contradiction of his Word. 
See 1 Sam. vi. 6 : " Wherefore do ye harden your hearts, as 
the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he 
(God) had wrought wonderfully among them." 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 591 

The works of Providence are all good and righteous, and 
his stores of mercy and grace are large and free, and he 
giveth liberally to all and upraideth none. Let his people 
ask his blessings and call upon him in time of need and 
trouble and he will help. His blessings will be strewn all 
along our journey and crown our journey's end. As a kind 
Father he will chasten his children for their good, but we 
should love him who wields the rod in kindness, because he 
loves us and will be with us in six troubles, and in the 
seventh no evil shall befall us, but he will make a way for 
our escape. If God be for us who can be against us and 
prevail ? Success in preaching the Word and every answer 
to prayer depend upon the kind and liberal hand of Provi- 
dence, whose hand is not shortened that it cannot save nor 
his ear heavy that it cannot hear. " He knoweth how to 
deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the 
unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." And, 
finally, when all shall wind to a close, it will be seen that the 
Lord's ways are equal and his judgments just. 

There is, perhaps, no subject which more perplexes the 
mind than that of Providence. Short-sighted man is prone 
to extremes, and sometimes either ascribes everything or 
nothing to him, unmindful of his character and righteous 
government as the gracious Father of spirits and Judge of 
all who will do right. 

It is often said of God that he not only governs the world, 
but that he controls all the actions of his rational creatures, 
and that he brings good out of evil. That he governs is true, 
but it is also true that he governs by a principle which is 
superlatively perfect, which condemns everything that is 
impure, whether in principle or action. To suppose, there- 
fare, that he controls actions to conflict with that holy prin- 
ciple is wild, to say the least of it, and no less so to conclude 
that he ever brings any good out of evil, nor can there be 
any such case presented. Evil introduced by his creatures 
has olten been checked in its onward progress by the intro- 
duction of some potent remedy and counteracting influence 
which resulted in great good, but the good has never 
been brought out of evil. It invariably conies from a 



592 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

different source. To instance the fall of man, it will be 
seen at once that the final result of that evil will be the 
eternal damnation of millions of rational beings, and the 
great remedial system will not absolutely prevent it. Now, 
who will assume the position that all would not have been 
eternally happy had it not been for the introduction of sin? 
And although a vast multitude will be saved, yet the salva- 
tion of a part can never equal the eternal happiness of all. 
Providence introduced the good but not the evil, and will be 
glorified in his own works, while we must bear the reproach 
of our sins. I am well satisfied that Providence brings no 
rational creatures into being on purpose to damn them for- 
ever, nor under such circumstances as necessarily renders 
their salvation impossible and their damnation of course 
certain, but always under such circumstances, with access to 
the fountain of grace, as to make their salvation fully possi- 
ble, and will equalize all men, and finally harmonize the 
providence of God with the righteous sentence which he will 
pass upon all. I will take occasion to notice here that where 
it so frequently occurs in the volume of inspiration that the 
remedy was provided before the foundation of the world, 
that Christ was as a lamb slain, etc., nothing less can be infer- 
red than that God provided all the essential means of grace 
for the world in due time, to meet the case of the infant of a 
day as well as persons of riper years, and his own hand has 
laid it at the door of every sinner. We are not, however, 
authorized from such language as the above to suppose that 
the remedial system was provided before it was necessary, 
and suffer our thoughts to wander off* into past eternity 
where we have not one ray of light to guide us to any safe 
conclusion, and with as little reason as revelation, fabricate a 
scheme of eternal redemption, and in most cases partial and 
unworthy providence, and only like ourselves. 

The proper limits of our inquiries into the works of Prov- 
idence are the great remedial system on the one hand and 
the righteous judgment on the other, and then we are to be 
guided at every step by the holiness of God and his infallible 
Word, and be sure not to transcend our limits. 

That God has suffered good men to be cut off in their 



LECTURES OF DR. BURROW. 593 

career of usefulness is a fact, and that he has suffered 
wicked men in the prime of life to fall by violence must be 
true, and, moreover, he doubtless has and does remove both 
good and bad from the world by a direct providence, but 
always in perfect keeping with his righteousness. He may 
keep the righteous in this world long after they are ripe for 
heaven and the wicked who are ripe for hell, as in the case 
of Pharaoh, or he may remove each at an earlier day to his 
own place. Good men are sometime taken from us and the 
worst of men left, because we are unworthy of the salt and 
deserve the scourge of the wicked. Not unfrequently when 
the righteous are called suddenly away from our midst we 
cousider it a mysterious providence. But not so. It is a 
plain act of a kind Father, who, being unwilling that his 
child should any longer bear the insults of the ungodly, who 
vex his righteous soul from day to day, calls him home. 
When this is the case we ought to take heed lest we be like 
unto Sodom and Gomorrah. How often is it seen when the 
best men among us are called off from our midst that the 
wicked become more incorrigible in crime, as though God 
had forsaken them. Such providences are to be dreaded, 
and to view them in the most favorable light, they should be 
taken as the last warning, like the departure of Lot from 
Sodom or the flight of Christians from Jerusalem before her 
overthrow by the Romans. There appears to have been a 
remarkable providence in the case of Job, who was afflicted 
in his person, family, and property, and yet he was one of 
the best men that lived in his day. Why was he afflicted? 
It could not be to satiate the revenge of Satan. What, then, 
was it designed for? 

This much we know, "that God our Heavenly Father 
chastens every son whom he receiveth," and does it for their 
good and not for even his own pleasure, much less for the 
gratification of devils and wicked men. " If we are without 
chastisement, then are we bastards and not sons." Job's 
affliction was evidently for his good, and at the same time 
his patient endurance affords an example of pure religion 
supported by divine grace, whatever else might have been 
designed. 



594 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

Before closing these remarks on Providence, there is one 
thing more which deserves special notice. It is the rise, 
progress, and perpetuity of the man of sin. This is one of 
the greatest evils under the sun, and is specially referred to 
as such in the Word of God. To attempt to account for this 
evil on any other principle than that of the fall of man 
would at least be arrogant and presumptuous. Providence 
did not do it nor did he prevent it by his power, but he 
suffered it to be done by men in the same sense in which he 
suffered man to sin at first as a free agent, for on the same 
principle that we account for one sin we may safely account 
for every sin — they must be voluntaiw. Why God has not 
overthrown the murderous man of sin long since and put an 
end to the mystery of iuiquity, has, perhaps, been the 
wonder of many, but certainly not more so than that he has 
not long since destroyed all sinners from the face of the 
earth. Popery, in all probability, will be overthrown by the 
same means which God employs to overthrow other portions 
of the empire of darkness, and it will only fall as light and 
truth are disseminated, crowned with his promised blessing. 
This evil may well be Considered one of the greatest under 
the sun. Nevertheless it is only so because it is one of the 
largest, most wealthy, and best organized associations in' the 
world. But all the elements of the man of sin are not in the 
Romish establishment. There is doubtless much of it else-, 
where, even in Protestant Churches, and nothing so much 
prevents the mystery of iniquity which now works there 
from showing itself openly as the want of wealth, numbers, 
and power. Supply these and we should see popery in 
America unless God were to prevent it by power. The 
purest state of the Church of Jesus Christ was in the days 
of her infancy and poverty, when she felt her dependence 
upon her Lord and Master, and this is true of every branch 
of the Church. Let any branch of the Church become 
wealthy and strong in numbers, and at once they become 
proud and popish, and are wont to boast of their greatness 
and to tread upon the necks of the feeble and lord it over 
them. These influences will easily gain upon the world and 
bring the unsanctified into the Church, who sometimes are 



LECTURES OF DR. RURROW. 595 

as destitute of principle 'as they are of religion. These are 
some of the influences which produced the man of sin. He 
never showed himself until the Church became popular in 
the days of Constantine, after which numbers and wealth in 
company with unholy men crowded into the Church, and she 
became rich, proud, and strong. Then the man of sin 
claimed to be infallible, and when he had received the sop, 
Satan entered into him fully. I do not say that it is by 
any means a necessary consequence that wealth and numbers 
must result in such evils, but great care should be taken to 
have purity, whether poor or rich, many* or few. And 
remember that God does not convert the world with money 
or numbers, but by purity and love, humility and well- 
tempered zeal. And, finally, the greatest favorites of Provi- 
dence have been the poor of the world, and such are his best 
Churches, ministers, and members. 



ARTICLES. 



ARTICLE I— A CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 



By the appointment of the great Head of the Church, the 
gospel is to be preached to all people ; it is catholic as to its 
organism and design, and all the world must have the sublime 
and precious news of salvation. The first ministers were, for 
a time, restricted to the Jews, where the prophets had taught. 
This continued only for a short time, during the personal 
ministry of Christ, and was designed for a special purpose — 
to confirm what the prophets had spoken, and to demonstrate 
to the descendants of Abraham that Jesus was the true Mes- 
siah. After his death and resurrection, his ministers were no 
longer restricted to the land of the Jews, but were commanded 
to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creat- 
ure. The word of truth was to be Cod's testimony and wit- 
ness to all. Holy angels, winged messengers, were not com- 
missioned and sent ; the Head of the Church sent mortal 
men — men of like passions with us — to publish the message 
of life and peace to the nations of the earth. Those, who 
were then commissioned and sent, could only preach to a 
part of the world, not to all ; and had it been possible for 
them to have preached to all then living on earth, the com- 
mission in its wide and gracious design would, by no means, 
have been met, for it was designed as well for future genera- 
tions as for those who were then living. When the command 
was given, " Go and teach all nations," there was a promise 
annexed, " Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of 
the world " — the end of time. The promise, annexed, im- 
(596) 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 597 

plies more than His presence with the ministers who were 
then living. It extends to the end of time, whereas, they 
were of short duration, and soon passed from their labors to 
their rest and reward. It is very evident that the promise 
was to be verified to those who were then in the great har- 
vest field, and to all others who were to succeed them in after 
ages to the end of time. We may, therefore, feel confident 
in believing that it was the design of the Son of God to per- 
petuate the ministerial body, by 'some wise and safe arrange- 
ment of his own, in conformity with his own great plan. 
Whatever may be his plan of perpetuating the ministerial 
body, it must be uniform, and ever under his own direction 
and control. 

1. A call to the work of the ministry may be argued irom 
the organism of the Church and the providence of God. 

By universal consent, the Church was organized by its 
great Head according to a plan of his own. In its original 
elements and frame-work, it possessed all that was vital and 
essential, and nothing has been added to or taken from it. 
Ministers of the word constituted a part of the Church, and 
were incorporated into it as a part of it, and wherever we 
trace out and find the Church of God, there we find his min- 
isters in her courts. It may be natural enough to inquire 
how they came there, and by what authority ? The only rea- 
sonable response must be, that it is the Lord's doings. The 
Church is a body composed of many members, wisely and 
graciously joined together as it hath pleased the Lord ; but 
all the members have not the same office. The Lord gave 
some prophets, and some apostles, and some evangelists, and 
some pastors and teachers : but all these were ministers of 
the sanctuary. All were not ministers of the word that com- 
posed the Church ; there was from the first, as there is now, 
a distinction between ministers and private members, yet 
each belonged to the Church, and had his own proper place 
in the body. As God organized the Church, he provided for 
her wants in that very organism, and left it neither to chance 
nor to the uncertainty of a capricious fancy ; but as certain as 
the Church, will be her ministers. He who created this world 
in the beginning, provided for the subsistence of every living 



598 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

thing in the very frame- work thereof. For the young lion 
and the raven, the sparrow and the worm, there is a plente- 
ous harvest as well as for the natural wants of man. Surely, 
then, we can but expect from the same wise and gracious 
Providence, marked attention to his Church in providing the 
active means of grace in a called and sent ministry, as well 
as the essential and saving grace. This argument must hold 
good wherever there is an organized Church, whatever may 
be the appointed instrumentality beyond it. But no power 
earthly, not even the Church of Christ, has the right to call 
and introduce men into the ministry ; this high prerogative, 
the Head and King of Zion has reserved unto himself. " Pray 
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth 
laborers into his harvest." — Matt. ix. 38. He, alone, who is 
wise and knows all things, is competent to the exercise of 
such a high and important function as that of calling and 
sending men to bear his messages to the race of man. 

2. A call to the ministry may be adduced from the immut- 
able law of the Church. 

By the law of the Church is meant the moral law, called 
the law of love, by which all are obligated to love God su- 
premely, and their brethren as themselves. This is the great 
law of the moral universe, and certainly of the Church. All 
it requires is a solemn duty, and those who fail are guilty. 
As to the obligation to love, we find no discrimination, ex- 
cept in relation to different capacities. All are bound to love 
God with all their soul, might, and strength, and their breth- 
ren as themselves ; on this " hangs all the law and the prophets." 
The argument, therefore, drawn from this law of the Church, 
will first appear in the negative form. There is nothing said 
in this code to one member of the Church that is not said to 
all, and as we find nothing on the subject of a call to the min- 
istry, and the duty of preaching the gospel, it cannot be rea- 
sonably inferred that one is more obligated to preach than 
another; and to stop here, we might either conclude that all 
or none are under such obligation. But when we turn and 
fully investigate the sacred Scriptures, although we find 
Christian duties given in minute detail — yet there is nothing 
as to who ought to minister in sacred things — all is left in 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 599 

the dark to us in this respect, unless there is a special call 
from God given in some way to some persons. All Chris- 
tians are' under solemn obligations to obey God in all things 
known as their duty, but are not to go beyond it. And as 
many as are specially called to the work of the ministry are, 
by such call, under obligations to obey, and no others may 
assume that responsible office. While the law of the Church 
says nothing directly as to who ought to preach the gospel, 
yet, when the Lord of the harvest calls men to labor in the 
harvest-field, they are, by that special call, placed at once 
under that law, and solemnly bound by it. Adam was, 
doubtless, created and placed under the same law of love in 
the garden, yet in so far as it relates to any prohibition con- 
tained in that law, he might have eaten of the inlerdicted 
tree and been faultless. But for as much as it was positively 
forbidden, and he was bound to obey, he sinned in violating 
that positive precept, and fell under the heavy curse of the 
moral code. The very idea that ministers of the gospel are 
under no obligation to preach, is grossly absurd; and at the 
same time it would be equally so to suppose that one man is 
more responsible than another, v here the Head of the Church 
lays no such responsibility upon one more than another. The 
Church and the world, with an irresponsible ministry, would 
be in a gloomy condition indeed, and might as w T ell have 
none, for it would be equivalent to none. There is no method 
known to us in which men are responsible, as ministers, ex- 
cept as they are specially called of God to that office ; nor is 
there any assurance of success in the work, or that the smiles 
of heaven will be upon them. But to such as are called of 
God, and are obligated to preach, the Lord has promised to 
go with them to the end of the world, and the Church and 
the world are under obligations to have the word from their 
mouth as from God. The moral law, which binds all to love 
and obey the Head of the Church, in its abstract bearing, 
places no one under any obligation to preach the word and 
administer the sacraments, nor is any one obligated to receive 
the sacraments from the hand of any mortal man, so far as 
may be learned from that law. And although the Church 
may appoint and ordain men in her own bosom, and clothe 



600 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

them with authority to officiate in the sanctuary, all this can 
give no authority to such persons, for as much as she has no 
right to take such steps, unless she has evidence to believe 
that it is the will of God, and that he has specially clothed 
such men to that work. Whatever the Church may do in 
the way of authorizing men to teach and administer the sac- 
raments, must be founded upon the good-will and pleasure of 
God, and a firm belief and a full persuasion that such men 
have been called of God. 

3. This argument may be farther urged from the established 
order of the Church of God, accompanied with Scripture tes- 
timony. 

It may be safely stated as the established and uniform order 
of the Church of God, in all ages of her militant existence in 
an organized form, that no man was ever ordained by men to 
the high functions of the sacred office, with the divine appro- 
bation, unless he was first called of God to that high station. 
In whatever wa}^ the appointment of the Lord was made 
known, it matters not, such appointment had the precedence, 
and the sanction and ordination of men in the Church were 
but the recognition and approval of what God had appointed, 
and .dependant upon it for all its authority. And in all cases, 
where the appointment of the Head of the Church did not 
precede, the Church could give no authority whatever, and 
her act was useless, if not presumptuous. From tiie time 
God led Israel from the land of tyranny and oppression into 
the land of promise, aud on to the advent of Jesus Christ, 
this was the established order of the Church. JN'o one as- 
sumed this high office uncalled who was not smitten with the 
displeasure of heaven — as Corah and his company. Aaron 
was called of God, and by his command was consecrated and 
set apart to the service of the tabernacle, and no man was 
allowed to take this honor to himself unless he was called of 
God, as was Aaron. Paul says : "And no man taketh this 
honor unto himself but he that is called of God, as was 
Aaron."- Heb. v. 4. The same apostle informs us that even 
Jesus Christ did not assume the office of priest uncalled and 
unsent, though he was Lord of all. " So also Christ glorified 
not himself to be made an high-priest ; but he that said unto 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 601 

him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee. Called 
of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec." — Heb. 
v. 5, 10. The argument is in no respect weakened by the dis- 
tinction of old and new covenants, for the same order was 
established for the Church under both dispensations, and 
bears the divine sanction alike under both — u that no one is 
to take this honor unto himself but he that is called of G-od, 
as was Aaron." When we are informed that the Son of God 
did not assume the office of priest uncalled, but was called 
and sent by his Father, and when we know that the first 
ministers of the everlasting gospel were called and sent by 
the Son of God, how can it be any longer a matter of doubt 
as to what is the established order of the house of God ? If 
the superlative greatness of Christ, and the superior greatness 
of the apostles over us, did not authorize an infraction of the 
established* law and order of the Church of God, but as we 
have seen they were called, can it be possible for any enlight- 
ened Christian to persuade himself, or. others, that a special 
call from God to the work of the ministry is not necessary, 
and is not the order of the. Church of Christ? Surely if this 
was the requirement in reference to the greater, it must be 
of the less, when it is manifest that the order has not been 
changed, and the work is no less important. Paul was called 
to be an apostle after the other apostles, and after the death 
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and certainly after the new 
dispensation had fully ushered in, which clearly demonstrates 
that God still called men to the work of the ministry. The 
apostles were ministers of the gospel, and although they, as 
apostles, had no successors, }^et as ministers of the New Tes- 
tament they had, and all who are called of God are their suc- 
cessors down to the present day, and will be to the end of 
time. 

Christ said to his disciples : " Pray ye therefore the Lord 
of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his har- 
vest." — Matt. ix. 38. It is both the duty and the privilege 
of the Church to pray for laborers, but it is alone the high 
prerogative of the King of heaven to call and send them, and 
when he does so he will go with them and crown their labors 
w T ith an abundant harvest. In his farewell address to the 
39 



602 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

elders or presbyters of Ephesus, Paul reminded them that 
they had been called to the responsible office and work of 
feeding the flock of God, by the Holy Ghost, and urges a 
faithful performance of duty upon them from the weighty 
considerations that Christ had shed his blood, and that they 
were called to the ministry by the Holy Ghost. Acts xx. 28. 

4. What constitutes a call, and what are some of the relia- 
ble evidences by which it may be recognized ? 

In speaking of a call to the gospel ministry, we would not 
be understood to say that an oral commutnication is made to 
any one at this day, though in some cases it appears to have 
been so communicated in other ages. By a call from God to 
the work of the ministry, we understand such to be our duty 
by a firm persuasion and a settled conviction within our own 
heart. Sometimes it is spoken of as a call or an expression 
made upon the heart by the Holy Ghost. The Ireart, in this 
case, can best know of such impressions, and of her own most 
solemn exercises, together with the motives which operate 
and weigh in the case. It may be safely assumed that none 
but regenerated persons are called of God to this awfully re- 
sponsible office. This is taken as granted by all serious per- 
sons. Then good men who love God and his people are the 
only subjects of a call. 

How are good men to become satisfied that God has called 
them to the gospel ministry V What kind of evidence do they 
ask of their Father in heaven? We say we believe there is a 
God, we know there is; yet we have never seen him, nor 
beard him speak outside of the Bible. Moreover, we believe, 
and are sure, that we nave souls, yet we have never seen one. 
Now, whatever may be the corroborating testimony to prove 
the being of God, or the existence of a soul within us, we rely 
more upon what is felt within, than upon any other evidence 
of which God has made us capable. Christians often speak 
of having religion, and not unfrequently they appear to be 
confident as knowing it, and indeed the Word of God so au- 
thorizes, from certain evidence felt in the heart. " We know 
that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the 
brethren." "Peter said to his Lord that he loved him, and 
appealed to him to bear witness to the sincerity of his heart." 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 608 

Men in all ages have believed in the truth of experimental 
religion, and have felt such a firm persuasion of it in them- 
selves, as to be willing to meet trials in every form, and to 
hazard life itself and the realities of great eternity upon that 
internal evidence. But the Word of God assures us " that the 
Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the 
children of God." Here it may be stated, that if the same 
kind of evidence will answer to prove to the Christian heart 
his call to the ministry, which he takes as evidence of his con- 
version to God and acceptance with him, upon which he hangs 
his hope of heaven : that kind of evidence can be had, and 
nothing more is promised. It has been said that regenerated 
men are the subjects of a call, and good men are to be the 
judges of such call in their own case, as that of their conver- 
sion ; and while experimental religion and a call to the min- 
istry are different, and not one and the same, it is neverthe- 
less true, that the same divine agent is the author of both, 
and the evidence of both is a firm persuasion, and a settled 
conviction of the truth in the one case as well as in the other. 
And it may not be amiss to remark, that such men as have 
been impressed of God to preach the gospel, and hesitate, 
and ask of him more infallible testimony, f-fom an unwilling- 
ness to shoulder the responsibility, are not unfrequently 
found, as they doubt their call to the ministry, also to ques- 
tion the religion of their heart and hope of heaven. The 
cause of such doubts and darkness are at once manifest. If 
the God of love does renew a man's heart, and then impress 
that heart to a great and good work, and the evidence of the 
call is about equal to that of the change, and he resists and 
draws back from the one, he may not be surprised if God 
should withhold from him the evidence and comfort of the 
other. For he whose good-will and pleasure it was to con- 
vert the soul, was pleased to impress it for the high calling 
of bearing his messages to perishing souls, and he who draws 
back may expect Jonah's fate. The evidence of a heart re- 
newed by the Holy Ghost is realized in that heart, and there 
alone ; the divine Spirit is the power that changes and com- 
forts the heart, and the evidence felt within is joy and peace 
in the Holy Ghost. The perpetuity of Christian comfort in 



604 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

this life is connected with godly living, and those who live in 
the strict performance of Christian duty feel an assurance of 
their acceptance with God. Beyond this, those who are not 
impressed by the Spirit to preach the gospel, feel no conscious 
guilt, but are content in that course. But, with such as God 
has impressed to minister in the sanctuary, it is very differ- 
ent — they may discharge the common duties of Christianity 
and yet not feel an approving conscience,, but feel conscious 
guilt for not having gone beyond this and warned sinners of 
their danger. The idea of preaching the gospel may at the 
time not have entered into their mind, yet there has arisen in 
the mind something in the form of duty which has not yet 
been performed, and which bears with awful weight upon the 
heart, from which there appears to be no relief in the ordi- 
nary course of Christian life. Indeed, those whom G-od has 
impressed to preach the gospel npver, perhaps, feel more bur- 
dened with that high responsibility than when they use their 
best efforts to live near to God, and with an humble reliance 
upon him, and a filial, resignation to his will, they consent to 
know and do their whole duty. But as darkness and doubt 
are the result of negligence in Christian duty, so darkness, 
doubt, and remote are consequent upon resistance, or a halt- 
ing state of mind in those who feel impressed with the duty 
of preaching the gospel. It will not do to say that they know 
not that God has called them to that work when, perhaps, 
they are about as well convinced of the impression to preach 
as of their regeneration, and were there no unwillingness to- 
the responsible, self-denying toils of a minister's life, and a 
preference for some other more easy and lucrative calling, 
they would be convinced of their call as fully as of their relig- 
ion. Those who are the least willing to perform duty when 
known to be such, are generally the most unwilling to know 
it, and are the most likely to be unreasonable in their require- 
ments of evidence. Paul uses the following language in ref- 
erence to his own feelings of duty : " For though I preach the 
gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon 
me ; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel ! " — 1 Cor. 
ix. 16. As to the woe of which he speaks with such peculiar 
emphasis, while we may not be able to comprehend the full 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 605 

import of the word, enough may be known to satisfy us that 
he felt it his duty to preach the gospel — God had laid the re- 
sponsibility upon him in a way that he felt it. And he speaks 
of others whom the Holy Ghost has made overseers and min- 
isters of the gospel at Ephesus who were not apostles — they, 
so far as is known, had heard no voice, but were impressed 
in their hearts by the Spirit. And we have the fullest assur- 
ance that the Lord of the harvest continues to call and send 
men into this wide field of labor in conformity with his uni- 
form plan and in fulfilment of his promise. This call is evi- 
dently an impression made in the heart and felt by it, and 
such as feel a persuasion and conviction within inclining 
them to the work of the gospel ministry ought to make it a 
matter of earnest prayer to God with full submission to the 
divine will. Doubtless, in all such cases where God has im- 
pressed the heart, he will respond to it in answer to honest, 
fervent prayer. But what will that response be, and how 
may it be known ? This is a most solemn inquir} 7 , and such 
shall be the answer. He who feels it his duty to minister in 
the sanctuary of God may have doubts at times — though his 
heart is certain of such impressions, he may not feel fully 
satisfied as to whether God has called him to the gospel min- 
istry. He who under such impressions feels submissive to 
the divine will, feels an approving conscience, and joy and 
peace in his heart; but if he resist the impression, darkness 
and doubts will be certain to envelop his soul as the certain 
result of his resistance of the Holy Ghost. At every return 
of such heart to God with resignation to know and do the 
divine will, where the resistance has not been intentional, but 
from inability to decide, there will be a return of the light of 
the divine Spirit. Truly, no Christian may expect to enjoy 
the comforts of religion who refuses to serve God in that ca- 
pacity ; nor can any one feel a good conscience and enjoy the 
smiles of heaven who resist an impression from the Holy 
Ghost to preach the gospel, but gloom and woe must abide 
with him all along the pathway of life. Then, as pure relig- 
ion is more than a mere desire to go to heaven, a call from 
God to the work of the holy ministry is more than a desire 
to enter into that responsible office, and more than ordination 



606 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

from the hands of men. It is the prerogative of the King of 
heaven to call and send his own ambassadors, and the duty of 
such to prepare themselves for the work with the aid of the 
Church. One who is called of God to this work seeks it not 
in view of worldly fame, wealth, or ease, but from a persua- 
sion within that God has impressed his heart, and it is his 
honest purpose to obey and honor him, and benefit his fellow- 
men, whatever may be his privations and torls in life. He 
who thus goes may expect the Lord to go with him, and as 
certain as God has impressed his heart, whenever such im- 
pression is acted out with an humble reliance upun him who 
made it, his broad seal of approbation will attend and crown 
it with good. 

5. Notice some objections to a special call to the gospel 
ministry. 

It is worthy of special notice that the first and leading ob- 
jection to a special call stands out with equal prominence 
against all spirituality in religion and the workings of the 
Spirit in the human heart. And among all the creeds 
throughout Christendom where a special call to the work of 
the ministry is denied, experimental religion is also denied, 
and even hooted at as fanatical, with not a solitary exception 
to the rule ; and religion is held by such religionists to be 
nothing more than a lifeless form of ceremonies. This is as 
certain as like begets like. The operations and workings of 
the Spirit in either case being denied, leads to skepticism and 
denial in the other; for no one can hold the one and consist- 
ently deny the other — they stand or fall together. Conse- 
quently, the answer to all such objections is at once sufficient, 
without consuming time to prove the truth of experimental 
religion, a denial of which is only peculiar to infidels. In all 
known cases where God gives no call to any particular duty, 
he requires no special service, and there is no special obliga- 
tion for its faithful performance ; and a Church without a 
called and obligated ministry is no Church of Jesus Christ, 
for he has promised to call and send laborers into his harvest, 
and to go with them to the end of the world. Another ob- 
jection sometimes urged against a call to the ministry is, that 
such as profess to be called are unable to give evidence of it 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 607 

to others by miracles and mighty signs. The evidences of a 
called minister at the present day are first felt in his own 
heart, and then demonstrated to the Church and the world 
by the light that shines in his life and the fruits that follow 
his ministry ; and these fruits are better known by their heav- 
enly-mindedness than the greatness of their number. Men 
oalled and sent of God preach in demonstration of the Spirit 
and of power, and leave their signs in the consciences of the 
people — they are written there, not with pen and ink, but 
with the Spirit of the living God. 

Again, it has been alleged as an objection, that those who 
•claim to have been called of God often differ in doctrine. 
This may be so to some degree, and doubtless is, but gener- 
ally the difference relates mainly to points of doctrine which 
are not deemed to be vital, but of minor consideration. And 
moreover, no true minister of Jesus Christ at this day claims 
for himself infallibility, not claiming to be inspired, but only 
having God's inspired word to read and study in common 
with others. This objection cannot be urged with any de- 
gree of plausibility, unless it could be shown that the Lord 
had promised to inspire all whom he might call to the minis- 
try, which we think cannot be done. 

Lastly, it has been strangely objected, that the gospel min- 
istry is not honorable — that not many noble and mighty are 
called. True, not many of the world's great men are called ; 
for God hath chosen the weak and despised of the world to 
confound the mighty, that the excellency of the power might 
be of God, and not of man. But such, however despised of 
men and destitute of worldly honor, are nevertheless honored 
of God above all that the world can give or take away. 
Worldly honor is empty, short-lived, and vain. But that 
which cometh from God is certain, and will outshine all the 
crowns and gems 'of earth, and will never fade away, but 
shine with brilliancy, like the stars of heaven, forever and 
ever. The man who supposes the gospel ministry to be con- 
temptible and unworthy of the great of the earth, must not 
only be stupidly ignorant, but exceedingly depraved, and too 
groveling to rise high enough to appreciate things that are 
excellent. The office of a called minister of Jesxts Christ is 



608 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

decidedly the highest and most responsible between heaven 
and earth, and higher and more fearful destinies are hung 
upon it. Yet, such have been the sordidness of some, and the 
blindness of others, that they have looked upon it as too low 
for their dignity ; and alas for some, wjio have been called of 
God to this high office, that they have disgraced themselves 
by seeking the evanescent honors of the legislative hall, and 
betrayed, like Judas, their Master and their calling for thirty 
pieces of silver and the tattered mantle of worldly renown. 
The minister's legacy in this life is that of much toil, and 
sometimes, like his Master, he has scarcely where to lay his 
head, and is often spurned by the world, but what of that I 
For when he comes to lay his armor down, all bright, and 
rest from his labors, his works will follow him where glory 
and honor will crown his head forever. 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 



ARTICLE II.— CUMBERLAND PRESBYTE- 

RIANISM NOT CALVINISM NOR AR- 

MINIANISM. 



1. In this attempt to give an expose of Cumberland Presby- 
terianism, it would" not be fair to hold the whole Church re- 
sponsible for what one man may think to be the doctrine of 
his denomination. It will, therefore, be remembered that the 
sentiments herein presented, are those of the Church as I un- 
derstand them, and I will bear the responsibility. 

It has been thought, and said, by Cumberland Presbyte- 
rians, that the system of doctrine held by us is in part Calvin- 
istic, and partly Arminian ; or, that it is composed from these 
two systems of doctrine. Calvinists and Arminians, however, 
have said, that we have no system of doctrine, separate and 
apart from one or the other of theirs, and that we must of 
necessity be either Calvinists or Arminians. This has been 
urged with more confidence, as we have claimed to hold a 
medium system of doctrine between the two extremes. I 
trust I shall manifest no zeal to prove that we stand in the 
midst, as I feel little or no concern^about it; but my honest 
attempt will be to show where we do stand, and let all men 
try us by the acknowledged standard of eternal truth. 

I shall attempt, in a plain manner, and in the proper place, 
to set forth our system of doctrine, by which it will be seen 
that we are neither Calvinists nor Arminians, and moreover, 
that there is not one particle of the distinctive doctrines of 
either incorporated in our system of doctrine. This is the 
plain truth, and the true state of the case, and it seems to be 
necessary to face the question at once ; for some of our peo- 
ple, and several of our young ministers, have been shaken 
from their position and connection with us, from the appre- 



610 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

hension that our system of doctrine is so nearly allied to Cal- 
vinism. In such a confused state of mind, it was compara- 
tively an easy task to draw them over to rigid Calvinism. 
Such a course being, as they were told, more consistent, than 
to continue in adherence to a creed composed mainly of the 
fragments of Calvinism. The distinctive doctrines of Calvin- 
ists and Arminians have no place in our system of doctrine, 
nor have ours any place in theirs ; they distinguish each from 
each without the least liability of misconstruction or confu- 
sion. Nevertheless, it is manifestly true, that these systems 
of doctrine are substantially the same, with the exception of 
the distinctive doctrines of each. Hence, "Cumberland Pres- 
byterians are as distinct from Calvinists in this respect as Cal- 
vinists are from Arminians, and it would be as consistent for 
a Cumberland Presbyterian to adopt the Arminian creed as 
the Calvinistic, leaving out Church-government. 

2. That which distinguishes Calvinism, doctrinally, from 
Cumberland Presbyteriauism, is distinctive Calvinism. And 
what is distinctive Calvinism? Distinctive Calvinism, as I 
understand it from their adopted creed, is* couched in the 
eternal and unalterable decrees of God — by which, all things 
begin and end, precisely as they were ordained and directed 
by the sovereign will and agency of God. This doctrine 
spreads out and gives a deep tinge to many other points of 
doctrine in the creed, to which I shall call attention. It su- 
perinduced the fall of man, and all other sins of men and 
angels — it fixed, with infallible certainty, the destiny of all 
beings and things — it limited the atonement and the gracious 
operations of the Holy Spirit to a part of the race of man — 
it is the alpha and omega of their doctrine of perseverance — 
it removes from the plan of salvation all conditions on the 
part of the creature, and sets aside man's agency — it makes 
faith the absolute gift of God, unconditionally wrought in the 
heart by the Holy Spirit; and, finally, it sends all the non- 
elect to perdition for their sins, as there was no atonement 
made for them, and, consequently, no possible salvation. 
But Calvinism should be permitted to speak for itself, and 
the comment follows. It says (Chap. in. on Decrees), " God, 
from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 611 

his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever 
comes to pass/' " By the decree of God, for the manifesta- 
tion of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto 
everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death." 
" These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, 
are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their num- 
ber is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased 
or diminished/' " Wherefore, they who are elected being 
fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called 
unto faith in Christ by his Spirit working in due season ; are 
justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by his power through 
faith unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by 
Christ effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and 
saved, but the elect only. The rest of mankind, God was 
pleased ... to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonor and 
wrath for their sins, to the praise of his glorious justice." 
The doctrine taught here is distinctive Calvinism. God is said 
to have foreordained some men and angels to eternal life, and 
the others to eternal death ; the elect were redeemed, effectu- 
ally called unto faith in Christ, and made certain of heaven, 
but the others were not redeemed — there was no atonement 
made for them — their salvation was not possible — the immu- 
table decree of death, and the eternal absence of the grace of 
God, were both against them, and yet they were righteously 
doomed for their sins. In the chapter on Providence it will 
be seen that all sins of all men and all angels, from the first 
to the last sin, were not only decreed, but God did, by his 
superintending agency, bring them all to pass. Chapter v., 
" The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite 
goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in his providence 
that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins 
of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission, but 
such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bound- 
ing, and otherwise ordering and governing of them, in a mani- 
fold dispensation, to his own holy ends; yet, so as the sinful- 
ness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from 
God, who being most holy and righteous, neither is, nor can 
be, the author or approver of sin." The sentiment here is, 
that all beings who ever have or ever will sin, were made for 



612 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

that purpose, and they could no more avoid it than they could 
their own "being, or turn aside the providence of God that 
worked to that end ; and yet it is said the sinfulness proceed- 
eth from the creature. Faith in Christ, and the perseverance 
of the saints, as held by Calvinists, are vitally and inseparably 
connected with eternal decrees and unconditional election. 
The elect were from eternity made certain of heaven ; conse- 
quently they are "effectually called unto faith in Christ." 
God gives it to them. He effectually works it in them, and 
then they come freely under the working and drawing of the 
power of God. All such will, of course, persevere, and be 
finally saved, and the salvation, and the faith, and the perse- 
verance, are all decreed together, and are unconditionally 
given, and Calvinism knows of no condition for any thing in 
all the plan of salvation. The faith of the heart that receives 
Christ, is the exercise of a regenerated heart, and the change 
is unconditional and absolute, and the faith that follows, 
a necessary fruit of it. See Effectual Calling, chap, x : "All 
those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, 
he is pleased, in his appointed and accepted time, effectually 
to call, by his word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and 
death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by 
Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and sav- 
ingly to understand the things of God ; taking away their 
heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh ; renew- 
ing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them 
to that wnich is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus 
Christ; yet, so as they come most freely, being made willing 
by his grace." See also Catechism, question 30, and answer : 
" How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased 
by Christ? The Spirit applieth to us the redemption pur- 
chased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting 
us to Christ in our effectual calling." We see, that by effect- 
ual calling, man's agency is effectually set aside, and the will 
controlled by Almighty power. Effectual calling works faith 
in the heart and unites it to Christ. It is the active, efficient 
agency in consummating eternal decrees, and becomes at once 
the vitality of Calvinistic perseverance, and ramifies the whole 
field of theology, and together with Providence, constitutes 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 613 

the controlling agent of the whole universe, and of all the 
evil, as well as the good. Having presented before the reader 
some of the distinctive doctrines of Calvinism, I shall now 
call up some of the distinctives of Arminianism. 

3. The doctrine of apostasy is the only one which demands 
our attention at this time as a distinctive doctrine of modern 
Arminians. They hold and teach that regenerated people 
may fall away from a state of favor with God, and may be 
finally and forever lost ; or, that such may be brought into 
favor with God again, and be finally saved. This doctrine 
has a peculiar bearing on the agency of man, which develops 
itself in relation to faith in Christ — the condition of eternal 
life and the final confirmation of believers. They admit that 
believers will be confirmed in holiness and happiness at some 
time in perfect accordance with free agency ; but this is not 
done until death, or near that time. The sentiment is plainly 
this — faith in Christ is the condition of eternal life, but the 
condition is continued through life, and the believer is never 
confirmed in the title and inheritance until death. 

They suppose that responsible agency must end where con- 
firmation begins, and if it begins when faith receives and rests 
upon Christ for salvation, the justified, regenerated Christian 
must cease to be responsible — connecting a liability to fall 
from a state of grace, with responsibility all the way through 
life. They do not appear to conceive the idea that a free 
moral agent might possibly comply with the terms on which 
eternal life is tendered in the gospel, and the title be confirmed 
in a shorter time than the whole of human life. This, how- 
ever, depends upon two things: First. What does God pro- 
pose to give — is it eternal life? Second. What is the condi- 
tion to be complied with on our part — is it not simply true 
faith in Christ? Now, if it can be made appear that the con-' 
dition is a lifetime continuation of faith, confirmation and cer- 
tainty to believers cannot take place before the time expires 
and the condition is fulfilled ; then, the title can be made sure 
in perfect conformit}- with moral agency, and not before. The 
whole of the controversy, therefore, on this point, resolves 
itself into this: is justifying faith in Christ the condition of 
life and of the sealing act of the Holy Spirit in the heart? 



614 . MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

or, is the condition a life continuance of faith ? This being 
settled, the controversy between us and Arminians is logic- 
ally at an end, and it only remains to be settled from the 
Word of God. Arminians agree with us, that all believers 
who are now in heaven were confirmed, and placed beyond 
the liability of falling at sometime during their probation, 
and all this was done without any infraction offered to their 
freedom. Now, if we can prove that confirmation takes place 
at the time justifying faith is exercised in Christ, we have 
gained our point with Arminians. For convenience, I will 
give some proof in this place, and more at another time. 
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."* The 
life is endless, and the believer has it — he is now in possession 
of it. The following scripture will inform us as to the time 
of confirmation : " In whom ye also trusted, after that ye 
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation : in 
whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that 
Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inherit- 
ance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto 
the praise of his glory." f 

4. I shall attempt to present the reader with a plain, synop- 
tical view of the system of doctrine held by Cumberland Pres- 
byterians, in which it will appear that we hold doctrines in 
common with both Calvinists and Arminians, to some extent ; 
while there is not one particle of distinctive Calvinism or 
Arminianism in our system of doctrine. I feel no concern as 
to whether our theological position is between Calvin and 
Arminius, only that our doctrines are taught in the Holy 
Bible. The reason why we reject those distinctive doctrines 
is, that we do not believe they are taught in the Word of God, 
but all that is taught therein is not rightly named by any ism. 
Calvinism was taught by Augustin as early as the fifth cen- 
tury, and Calvin renewed it in his day; but certainly uncon- 
ditional election and reprobation were not taught by Christ 
and his apostles, nor by their immediate successors. They 
did not teach that God had from eternity ordained a part of 
the race to heaven, and the other part to hell, and that Christ 
only tasted death for a part of the race. This is Augustin 

* John in. 36. tEph. i. 13, 14. 



7 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 615 

Calvinism, and we reject it. Arminius was accused of teach- 
ing many errors, such as was held by Pelagius ; but this charge 
was never established. His peculiar tenet was that of apos- 
tasy, or rather it was taught by his immediate successors. 
This we reject also. All the doctrines held by Calvin, out- 
side of what I have named at different times in this exposi- 
tion,. were also held by Arminius, except some shades of dis-. 
crepancy in relation to imputation. We can set forth our 
system of doctrine to the world from beginning to end, and 
incorporate every essential doctrine of the Bible, and never 
admit one shade of those rejected isms, and the Christian 
world shall say we have the entire framework. We hold that 
there is one God — infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his 
wisdom, power, will, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; 
that there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God ; that 
God created all things good, and man in his own likeness a 
responsible being and a competent agent — that he sinned of 
his own freewill and accord, and became justly liable to 
wrath, and together with his posterity became depraved; 
that Christ made a complete, full, and real atonement for the 
whole world — the entire race that fell in Adam ; -that Christ 
rose from the dead, which, together with his sufferings and 
death for all, secured the certain resurrection of all men — 
righteous and unrighteous; the ascension of Christ into 
heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, to enlighten all 
men, and to sanctify all true believers, and to comfort and 
lead them to heaven; repentance toward God and faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ; justification fully, for the sake of 
Christ, and on the account of what he has done for us; re- 
generation, by the Holy Spirit; adoption into the family of 
the Lord, and heirship with him, together with the general 
assembly and Church of the first-born in heaven; sanctifica- 
tion, or a growth in grace; a life of practical godliness; the 
future happiness of the righteous, from and after death, and 
the future misery of the wicked; the general resurrection 
of the righteous and the wicked; the general judgment by 
Jesus Christ ; the glorification of the righteous, and the eter- 
nal condemnation and misery of the wicked. The sacraments 



616 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

are two, baptism and the Lord's Supper; these are of divine 
appointment, but not essential to salvation. These are the 
doctrines of the Old and New Testaments, and they constitute 
a complete system of theology, leaving out eternal and unal- 
terable decrees, unconditional election, reprobation, and ef- 
fectual calling, as having no place in the system of truth. 
That God has decreed good is as certain as that he has willed 
it, but to speak of eternal decrees and eternal election, is both 
absurd and unscriptural; for God does not so speak of his 
acts and doings; all things have been done in time — other- 
wise, they were never done at all. If decrees could be eternal, 
I can see no reason why there might not be eternal creatures 
by an exercise of the divine will. All that ever such doctrines 
have done in the Christian world, has only been to cast a dark 
cloud over the precious Word of God and to hinder the gos- 
pel. A minister might talk forever about eternal decrees, 
and never do any good. Before he can reach the hearts and 
consciences of sinners, he must dispense with decrees and 
preach the gospel, leaving the decrees with God. Equally 
absurd is effectual calling, as held and taught by Calvinists, 
and it belongs to and is an essential element of eternal elec- 
tion, and constitutes the great absolute agency of Calvinistic 
perseverance, the destroyer of agency, and a pretext for unbe- 
lief. We hold to the necessity of divine influence and salva- 
tion by grace alone, but not to the notion, that God effectually 
calls, regenerates, gives faith, and draws by an Almighty 
power, unites the soul thus drawn to Christ, and that it then 
comes to the Lord most freely, being made willing by his 
power, when the facts show that the soul was both changed 
and united to Christ before it is said to come willingly. That 
God chose all men in Christ, according to the Scriptures, be- 
fore the foundation of the world, we believe. But this was 
not to any certainty of heaven, but that we might be holy — 
it was to a possible salvation ; then, Christ died for us all, 
" That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." Here is a possible salvation by the 
atonement of Christ and the light and influence of the Spirit, 
and when sinners repent and believe in Christ, their salvation 
becomes certain, they are elected children of God and heirs of 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 617 

glory. The perseverance of the saints, as held by Cumber- 
land Presbyterians, is located here; it is not the same with 
Calvinistic perseverance, which is unconditional, but it is con- 
ditional, and faith in Christ is that condition: «* Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." " That who- 
soever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life." "He that believeth on the Sou hath everlasting 
life." " Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ."* 
Perseverance is connected with adoption — adoption consti- 
tutes the adopted children of God and heirs of God, and not 
only heirs of God, but joint-heirs with Jesus Christ; for Paul 
says, " It* children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs 
with Christ." f But it is said, " That we are all the children 
of God by faith in Christ." Faith must, therefore, be closely 
connected with adoption, justification, and regeneration, for 
the adopted have the Spirit of Christ, which claims S'-nship 
with God. Are any adopted before they believe in Christ? 
Certainly not. For it is by faith they become children and 
heirs of God. Faith is the instrumental cause of justifica- 
tion and adoption. It is the gospel condition of eternal life, 
and those who believe have this very life. They have it as 
soon as they believe, and are immediately sealed to the day 
of redemption, as has been proven. 

Justified believers are the elect of God, which cannot be 
deceived, for Paul says, ik Who shall lay anything to the 
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth : w T ho is he 
that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is 
risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the 
love of Christ? "J Such elect persons are united to Christ 
and will never be separated from him. Christ has given 
them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall 
they be plucked from his hand, for he will keep that w r hich 
they have committed to him against that day, and will bring 
it to be with him where he is to behold his glory. The 
Bible establishes our views of perseverance upon the rock 
of Christ: " Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the 

*Acts xvi. 31; John in. 16, 36; Gal. in. 26. tRom. vm. 17. {Rom. 
▼in. 33-35. 
40 



618 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 

gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Of the children 
of God it is said, "Ye are dead and your life is hid with 
Christ in God, and when Christ who is our life shall appear, 
then shall ye also appear with him in glory." No Christian 
doubts the second coming of Christ or the life of the Son of 
God, then who can doubt the certain salvation of all those 
who are in him and he in them, for when he who is their 
life shall appear, they shall apppear with him in glory, for 
he has said, " Because I live ye shall live also." To doubt 
the certain salvation of believers is certainly as absurd as to 
doubt the existence of Christ himself. It is, in fact, the same 
error. And to controvert the certain inheritance of the chil- 
dren of God, is as stubborn unbelief as that which controverts 
and denies the certainty of Christ's inheritance, for the chil- 
dren of God are said in the Bible to be joint heirs with him. 
" But we are said to be Calvinists by both Calvinists and 
Arminians, otherwise we have no theological existence." 
Why are we Calvinists? Is it because we hold the doctrine 
of perseverance ? But, I ask, is it Calvinistic perseverance ? Is 
there not a wide difference ? Manifestly very wide. Calvinists 
say, " This perseverance of the saints depends, not upon their 
own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of elec- 
tion, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God 
the Father." — Chap. xvn. The reason why the saints are 
such, and the reason why they will persevere and be saved 
is that God did from eternity ordain it and all the means, 
with the certain, absolute, and unconditional application of 
them, as in their effectual calling. We, as Cumberland Pres- 
byterians, believe that the children of God will be saved, 
because God provided for it in the plan of salvation. He 
promised to do it and he is able and willing and will perform 
his word. And he named the condition upon which he will 
give eternal life, and that condition is faith in his Son, and 
we believe it. We believe that God will justify all true 
believers, that he will adopt and seal them to the day of 
redemption, " after they believe in Christ," and that he will 
be a well of living water in them springing up into everlast- 
ing life. We furthermore believe that man can accept or 
reject Jesus Christ with all 'his benefits ; that his salvation 



ARTICLES BY. DR. BURROW. 619 

turns on his own agency, on his free volition ; and that if he 
is saved, it is by grace, and if damned, it is his own fault — it 
is because he rejected Christ and would not come to him 
that he might have life. "When I say man has the ability to 
accept Christ, I speak plain enough for all those who are not 
disposed to cavil ; for if God is the author of the plan it is 
complete in all its parts and appliances, and if he requires us 
to come to Christ for life, all the influences which he knew 
to be necessary for us are afforded; in fact, they are incor- 
porated in the plan and become part of it. Calvinists will 
not claim our views of pereverance nor can they overthrow 
them by the Word of God, for they have always been hard 
pushed to maintain their own creed, that God ordained some 
of the race to everlasting life irrespective of their agency, 
and the rest to everlasting death, and not only so, but he 
ordained and decreed all their wickedness which led them to 
hell. But then it is said " that he curses them for their sins." 
Let them prove this from God's Word. 

Arminians cannot reasonably object to our doctrine of per- 
severance, for it claims to recognize man's moral freedom, 
only they suppose that man is not competent to enter into 
covenant with God and the contract be binding. They, 
however, do hold, as they must, that man can do this at or 
before death, for if believers are not confirmed in holiness 
and happiness, they would be liable to fall from heaven, and 
all heaven might be depopulated. Confirmation is an essen- 
tial element of the plan, and if men are responsible in relation 
to it, there must be some condition or test-act, and if there is 
any test-act or condition of sealing, that must be faith, for 
God says he will save the believer. ISTow, when the question 
comes up, At what time are believers confirmed ? is it at death 
or when is it ? the scriptural answer from all must be that 
it is whenever the heart believeth unto righteousness. See 
the proof again : " In whom also after that ye believed, ye 
were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the 
earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the pur- 
chased possession, unto the praise of his glory." * Armin- 
ians cannot say it is done at death, nor can Calvinists say it 
is done from eternity. 

* Eph. i. 13, 14. 



620 MEDIUM THEOLOGY. 



ARTICLE III. — INFANT SANCTIFICATION 
IN RELATION TO JUSTIFICATION. 



I hold that infants are depraved but not guilty, condemned 
sinners and liable to the pains of hell, and that they never 
become guilty until they commit sin, and never sin until 
the} 7 become responsible agents; that they are saved by sanc- 
tification and never need justification until they are personal 
sinners, then they (no longer infants but adults) must repent 
and believe in Christ, and are justified by faith in receiving 
him and all his grace; that justification is throughout the 
sacred Word connected with faith, and in that sense it is 
unreasonable and not warranted in the Word of God in the 
case of infants. 

The representative plan is a Bible doctrine — that the race 
was represented by Adam in such a sense as subjected them 
to a depraved nature when born, but this impurity was not 
by imputation, but by descent from an impure fountain ; and 
that the imputation of actual sin to any one, except the 
actual sinuer himself, is the absurd doctrine of men and not 
taught in the Scriptures. 

That Christ represented the race so as to make ample pro- 
vision for them to be saved, and they came into the world 
under a dispensation of mercy, and dying in an infantile 
state are sanctified and saved. But the acts and doings of 
Christ were not imputed to any one of the race any more 
than Adam's were, but the benefits thereof constitute the 
only ground of salvation ; but none of the evils introduced 
by the first Adam were directly removed by the second. But 
if the doctrine of the imputation of Adam's sins to the race 
were true, and took effect at the ti"ie, it would make them 
as guilty as himself. And, in the next place, the obedience 
of Christ being imputed to the same race, would make them 



ARTICLES BY DR. BURROW. 621 

as pure and innocent as Adam was before lie fell. And if 
such imputation could be true and take effect before they 
had being, I do not see why it could not take effect before 
we were born, in the second place, and restore us at once. 
Hence, I conclude there is no such imputation in either case. 
Both are imaginary and not real. Imputation is a Bible 
doctrine, but what is imputed? It is said to be the right- 
eousness of Christ, wrought out by his active and passive 
obedience. These were necessary in providing the remedy, 
but the remedy is called grace, and we are saved by grace 
alone. Therefore, when Christ is received by faith all this 
grace which he procured becomes ours, and the Spirit applies 
it; but until we adults consent to the plan and rely upon 
this grace it cannot be righteously applied, and the right- 
eousness of God and his government sustained in the justifi- 
cation and sanctification of such as believe. But imputation, I 
feel next to certain, is never spoken of in the Bible, except in 
connection with moral free agency and its existence. There- 
fore, no sin was ever imputed to infants until they (which is 
impossible) commit it themselves, and none was ever imputed 
to Christ, for he never committed any sin ; and where there is 
no actual sin, as in the case of infants, the only imputation 
necessary is the application of the sanctifying grace, and the 
only justification requisite is that which relates to God and 
his government, and justifies him in making the sanctifying 
application, and this was accomplished fully by Christ, and 
the way is fully open and stands open until it is obstructed by 
actual sin. Then it becomes unlawful to sanctify such until 
this controversy is settled between the government of God 
and the sinner, and this is done by faith and justification. 
Then the Holy Spirit sanctifies. 



r 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 



LAST PREACHING AND SECOND ADVENT. 



In 1865, after the " long dark night of sorrow," as my 
father termed the war between the States, he turned with 
great relief of mind, his studies to the scriptural doctrine 
concerning the second advent of Christ. He read and 
studied the subject with peculiar interest and delight. 

The following are some of his positions on this subject : 

First. He abandoned his former idea of the gradual intro- 
duction of the thousand years' reign of righteousness and 
peace on earth. He did not think the world was gradually 
becoming better or more Christian, but preached that " as it 
was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the 
coming of the Son of man." — Luke xvn. 26-30. Wicked- 
ness prevailed before the flood till God overwhelmed all but 
righteous Noe and those that were with him in the ark. So 
shall wickedness prevail till Christ shall come again. 

Second. He discarded metaphor from the promise of the 
angels to the Galileans concerning the ascending Saviour: 
"Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?, this same Jesus 
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in 
like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven;" and 
accordingly looked for the Saviour in person, and so preached 
that we are to look for him in person. 

Third. While he fixed no certain and precise date to His 

*My father's manuscript on this subject is lost. I deem the volume 
incomplete without something on this subject, therefore volunteer this 
summary. — A. G. B. 

(622) 



LAST PREACHING AND SECOND ADVENT. 623 

coming, as the day or hour, he nevertheless believed and 
preached that this is the era of his glorious appearing. He 
laid stress upon the signs of the times as brought out by 
Matthew (xxiv., xxv.), the false Christs and teachers, the 
persecutions of Christians, the wars and bloodshed in. the 
earth, the preaching of the gospel to all nations for a wit- 
ness, the distinctness of the generation of the Jews among 
the nations of the earth till the prophecy of their restoration 
to Christ, and probably to their own land, too, and even the 
wickedness of the world and lethargy of the Church. To 
him these signs betokened his near approach and justified 
the longing petition of the sainted John of Patmos, and that 
last one in the Book, " Even so come, Lord Jesus." 

HIS REVIVAL MEETINGS. 

In his old age, " on the borders of the promised land," as 
he expressed it, he seemed to start out afresh in his mission 
of warning sinners and converting them to Christ, a work, 
however, he could not forget during a ministry of between 
forty-five and fifty years. A wonderful awakening attended 
his labors at this time, a period of about eighteen months 
previous to his death.* He attracted large audiences. Re- 
vivals of religion occurred at many places in West Tennes- 
see, especially on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad from Hum- 
boldt to Union City, including also those young cities. 
Multitudes who were in attendance at these meetings still 
live to bear witness to the gracious results which attended 
them. The mighty power of God was among the people, 
making glad his Church and converting sinners to himself. 

* Rev. J. W. Morrow attended with him almost constantly at this time 
and assisted at these meetings. Other ministers also cooperated at their 
various places. 



ERRATA. 



Page 45, third line from top, for " Christ" read " Christ's." 
103, third line from bottom, for " done " read " did." 
112, see Lecture on Decrees, page 361. 
114, thirteenth line from top, for "the" read "he." 
162, fifteenth line from bottom, for " taught" read "sought." 
188, ninth line from bottom, omit " no sooner than." 
206, fourth line from bottom, for "certainly" read "certainty." 
331, tenth line from bottom, for " universalians " read " Univer- 

salists." 
408, thirteenth line from top, omit "not" and read "and be." 
471, fourth line from top, for "greatest" read "least." 
483, eight line from top, omit " it." 

487, ninth line from bottom, for " strange " read " strong." 
499, eighteenth line from top, for "builders" read "builded." 
531, eighteenth line from bottom, for "promise" read "premise." 

(624) 



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